• High Power Pulsed W- and Ka-Band Radars
• W-band ARM Cloud Radar (WACR)
• Solid-State FMCW Radar
• Multi-Frequency Airborne Radars

High Power Pulsed W- and Ka-Band Radar

Since 1993, ProSensing has built a total of eight millimeter-wave cloud radars for mobile and airborne operation. Millimeter-wave cloud radars, operating at either 35 GHz (Ka-band) or 95 GHz (W-band), achieve high sensitivity with small antennas and moderate transmit power due to the enhanced scattering efficiency of small cloud particles at short wavelengths. These systems are powered by Extended Interaction Klystron Amplifiers with estimated lifetimes in excess of 10,000 hours.

• Weather-tight, liquid cooled enclosures.
• 1.5 kW peak power with pulse-to-pulse polarization agility on transmit.
• 80 W average pwer at Ka-band, up to 45 W average power at W-band.
• Two-channel receiver for simultaneous reception of orthogonal polarizations.
• Receiver LNA noise figures of 3 dB at Ka-band, 4.5 dB at W-band.
• PC-based digital receiver with real-time full spectrum processing.

W-band ARM Cloud Radar (WACR)

ProSensing recently delivered two high power W-band cloud radars to the DOE-ARM program. These radars include temperature controlled, liquid cooled enclosures, internal hot/cold load calibration, and digital receivers with continuous full-spectrum processing. The W-band ARM Cloud Radar (WACR) systems were deployed at the DOE's Southern Great Plains site in Lamont, OK, and in Niamey, Niger as part of the ARM Mobile Facility. These radars can be controlled and monitored through the internet using a client/server software package created by ProSensing.

WACR installed in the ARM Mobile Facility, Niamey, Niger.

WACR installed at SGP site, Lamont, OK.

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Solid-State FMCW Radar

ProSensing also manufactures solid-state FMCW cloud radars, which represents a cost effective alternative to high power cloud radar systems. FMCW cloud radars can achieve very fine range resolution (1m) without the need for ultra-high bandwidth digitization.

We have developed both airborne and ground based versions having the follwoing features:

• Up to 400 mW output power with multi-device FET amplifiers.
• Receiver LNA noise figure of 4.5 dB.
• PC-based digital receiver with real-time full spectrum processing.
• Range resolution of 1-100 meters, continuously variable.

Doppler velocity spectrum taken in a thunderstorm with a 300 mW FMCW cloud radar mounted on the roof of a van driving at 55 mph. Range resolution: 5m. Radar Doppler spectrum, due to modulation of the drop size distribution due to Mie resonance. The dotted lines show the predicted terminal velocity of the drops corresponding to the first three peaks in drop radar cross-section due to Mie resonance (approximately 1.0 mm; 2 mm; 3.4 mm). The peaks in the Doppler spectrum deviate from the computed terminal velocities due to vertical air motion.

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Multi-Frequency (X-Band, Ka-Band and W-Band) Airborne Radar

• Lightweight, epoxy-fiberglass wing pod.
• 25 kW peak power at X-Band and Ka-Band with all electronics built into pod.
• Solid-state W-Band FMCW radar.
• Real-time pulse-pair and reflectivity processing with FPGA-based digital receiver/signal processor.
• Neural network based estimation of cloud liquid water content and drop size parameters.

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