ROGER: A 94GHz (W-band) Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) Profiling Radar
The system was built by Prosensing Inc and was initially developed as an airborne system and was integrated on the CIRPAS Twin Otter (http://www.cirpas.org/). In 2011 with funding from NPS, ProSensing designed and manufactured a new metal frame to hold the newly-purchased 24-inch parabolic dishes antennas and all the CFMCW electronics, including the server computer and the power supplies. The requisite connections to the CFMCW hardware are a standard AC power line and a LAN (Internet) connection. When operating from the ground, the use of larger antennas presents improvement in the radar’s sensitivity over the 12-inch antennas used in airborne calibration.
The system was recently refurbished by Prosensing Inc. As part of the upgrade, the W-band was upgraded to High-Resolution Radar (HRR) using quadratic phase coding (QPC) for high duty cycle operations (i.e., higher sensitivity without multiple-trip interference) and the use of wide bandwidth transmit waveforms to enable ultra-fine range resolution (~1 m), a 30-fold improvement over current instrument. In addition, a high-performance digital receiver will be added to the radar system to improve its overall performance. In addition, Prosensing Inc. designed and fabricated an environmental enclosure to host the airborne radar system and make it suitable for ground-based observations with a sloped radome and a high power blower and heater to remove hydrometeors from the radome.
The system was recently refurbished by Prosensing Inc. As part of the upgrade, the W-band was upgraded to High-Resolution Radar (HRR) using quadratic phase coding (QPC) for high duty cycle operations (i.e., higher sensitivity without multiple-trip interference) and the use of wide bandwidth transmit waveforms to enable ultra-fine range resolution (~1 m), a 30-fold improvement over current instrument. In addition, a high-performance digital receiver will be added to the radar system to improve its overall performance. In addition, Prosensing Inc. designed and fabricated an environmental enclosure to host the airborne radar system and make it suitable for ground-based observations with a sloped radome and a high power blower and heater to remove hydrometeors from the radome.
In addition, the environmental enclosure can be used as a shipping container for the radar, conduct a full check-up of the radar electronics and computers and replace any malfunctioning components and perform radar system components characterization and provide calibration constant for the radar system with the new antennas. The system was renamed to “ROGER” to honor the pioneered contributions of Dr. Roger Lhermitte in the development of 94-GHz Doppler radars. The system is currently operational at the SBU-BNL Radar Observatory.