Design and manufacture of atmospheric radar systems

The ATRAD analysis and display suite is provided with all radar systems purchased through ATRAD. The suite allows the analysis, postanalysis, and display of mesospheric-stratospheric-tropospheric (MST) and boundary layer wind velocities and temperatures at VHF, and mesospheric wind velocities and electron densities at MF.

Wind velocities can be estimated using:

• Full Correlation Analysis (FCA) of Spaced Antenna (SA) data
• Spatial Correlation Analysis (SCA) of SA data
• Imaging Doppler interferometry (IDI) analysis of SA data (MF systems)
• Time-domain interferometry (TDI) analysis of multi-beam Doppler radar data (VHF systems)
• Vertical beam TDI analysis of SA data (MF systems)
• Meteor winds and diffusion coefficient analysis for multi-beam Doppler radar and All-Sky meteor systems

In addition:

• Boundary layer and tropospheric temperatures are estimated using Radio Acoustic sounding system (RASS) measurements (VHF systems).
• Electron densities are estimated using the Differential absorption (DAE) and Differential phase experiments (DPE) (MF systems)
• Layer widths and positions are estimated using the frequency domain Interferometry (FDI) technique

The suite also allows the display of the raw time-series data of the receiver outputs employed for analysis in a number of different formats, including spectra and correlation functions.

The standard suite operates under Unix X-windows environments (e.g. Linux, FreeBSD, DEC and HP Unix), and allows remote connectivity. The suite is written in Interactive Data Language (IDL), operating under all IDL versions between 4 to 5.5. The suite uses a graphical user interface to allow "point-and-click" functionality.

The suite can be configured to analyse, postanalyse, and display raw data of any format. This allows the suite to reside on a PC linked to a radar controller, and perform the analysis and display of the raw time-series data collected by the radar controller. The suite can thus be connected to any radar and perform the analysis of the data produced by the radar. The suite also allows the analysis and display of data collected using ATRAD's earlier RD10 and RD12 systems.

The suite can also be configured to perform alternative analyses to those described above. ATRAD can provide the relevant information to customers to produce their own analyses to run within the suite, but can also write analyses to customers specifications if required.

The postanalysis functionality can now be used to ftp averaged results and plots from the display software to remote locations. The ftp of the averaged results is being used by the Australian Bureau of meteorology to evaluate the Mt Gambier VHF ST, and Sydney and Melbourne VHF BLTR profilers. The ftp of display software plots is demonstrated on the ATRAD results web page for various VHF and MF radar systems.

Some more examples of the displays produced by the analysis and display suite are also available.

OTHER NOTES

This is an Export Brochure.

Specification are indicative only and subject to change without notice