Development of a passive VHF radar system using software‐defined radio for equatorial plasma instability studies

[1] In this paper, a bistatic passive radar receiver system named “Coherent-scatter Atmospheric Passive Radar Imager (CAPRI)” is described. It is primarily designed to study the dynamics of the upper atmosphere by utilizing “transmitters of opportunity” as the RF target illuminators. CAPRI is constructed using the open source software-defined radio toolkit, GNU Radio, to meet the signal processing requirements in combination with the open source hardware, Universal Software Radio Peripheral 2, for data acquisition. The resultant system is highly flexible, and we present the details of the design as well as a performance analysis. CAPRI will be deployed in Peru, near the magnetic equator, for long-term operations in the area. FM stations near Lima, Peru, will be utilized with the targets of interest being the equatorial electrojet and the spread F. The results will then be compared to the Jicamarca Unattended Long-term investigations of the Ionosphere and Atmosphere (JULIA) radar data, and CAPRI will be used to improve the simultaneous time and spatial coverage in the region in a more cost-effective manner.

[1]  J. A. Thomas,et al.  Field-aligned irregularities in the Es-region , 1963 .

[2]  J. Chau,et al.  Statistics of 150-km echoes over Jicamarca based on low-power VHF observations , 2006 .

[3]  H. Griffiths,et al.  Passive coherent location radar systems. Part 1: performance prediction , 2005 .

[4]  Michael Rice,et al.  Digital receivers and transmitters using polyphase filter banks for wireless communications , 2003 .

[5]  E. R. Paula,et al.  Global equatorial ionospheric vertical plasma drifts measured by the AE-E satellite , 1995 .

[6]  John D. Sahr,et al.  Opportunities for passive VHF radar studies of plasma irregularities in the equatorial E and F regions , 2004 .

[7]  R. F. Woodman,et al.  Spread F – an old equatorial aeronomy problem finally resolved? , 2009 .

[8]  William M. Siebert,et al.  A radar detection philosophy , 1956, IRE Trans. Inf. Theory.

[9]  David L. Hysell,et al.  Combined radar observations of equatorial electrojet irregularities at Jicamarca , 2007 .

[10]  D. Martyn Theory of Height and Ionization Density Changes at the Maximum of a Chapman-like Region, taking account of Ion Production, Decay, Diffusion and Tidal Drift , 1955 .

[11]  H. Griffiths,et al.  Television-based bistatic radar , 1986 .

[12]  D. T. Farley,et al.  Radar measurements of very small aspect angles in the equatorial ionosphere , 1996 .

[13]  Chris Baker,et al.  Passive coherent location radar systems. Part 2: waveform properties , 2005 .

[14]  Ronald F. Woodman,et al.  Radar observations of F region equatorial irregularities , 1976 .

[15]  S. Stein Algorithms for ambiguity function processing , 1981 .

[16]  T. Hagfors,et al.  Methods for the measurement of vertical ionospheric motions near the magnetic equator by incoherent scattering , 1969 .

[17]  David L. Hysell,et al.  Long term studies of equatorial spread F using the JULIA radar at Jicamarca , 2002 .

[18]  H. Booker,et al.  Scattering of radio waves by the F-region of the ionosphere , 1938 .

[19]  John D. Sahr,et al.  The Manastash Ridge radar: A passive bistatic radar for upper atmospheric radio science , 1997 .

[20]  E. Hogenauer,et al.  An economical class of digital filters for decimation and interpolation , 1981 .