SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR GENERATING DERIVED PRODUCTS IN A RADAR NETWORK

• US 20120086596A1
• Filed: 10/08/2010
• Published: 04/12/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/08/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: University Of Massachusetts
• Original Assignee: University Of Massachusetts
• Inventors: Insanic, Edin, Siqueira, Paul
• Granted Patent: US 8,525,724 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 342/26.D
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/951 ground based
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/003 Transmission of data between radar, sonar or lidar systems and remote stations
• CPC Class Codes: Y02A 90/10 Information and communication technologies [ICT] supporting adaptation to climate change, e.g. for weather forecasting or climate simulation

Abstract

The present invention relates to systems and methods of measuring atmospheric conditions using networked radar systems. A processor receives sensed data from the radar nodes of the network to determine weather conditions within the atmospheric region measured by network. Preferred embodiments use a velocity processor to determine the velocity of the atmosphere in real time for display.

Claims

1. A networked radar system for measuring velocity of atmospheric events comprising:

a networked radar system having a plurality of radar nodes, each radar node sensing velocity data within a volume region during a scan interval; and

a velocity processor connected to the networked radar system, the velocity processor receiving velocity data from each of the radar nodes for each scan interval and that processes the velocity data to measure event velocity within the volume region for each scan interval.

2. The system of claim 1 further comprising a control system connected to the radar nodes, the control system generating a plurality of scan parameters to control operation of the radar nodes.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the scan interval is 2 minutes or less.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the scan interval is 1 minute or less.

5. The system of claim 2 wherein the scan parameters include pulse repetition frequency and pulse length.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the system comprises a plurality of velocity processors.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the velocity processor generates a metric of event velocity data.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein the control system generates adjusted scan parameters for a group of participating nodes for a subsequent scan interval.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the nodes are positioned less than 60 miles from adjacent nodes.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein the event comprises an object moving within a three dimensional volume of an atmosphere region.

11. The system of claim 10 wherein the object comprises an aircraft.

12. The system of claim 10 wherein the scan interval is 5 minutes or less.

13. The system of claim 1 wherein the networked radar system comprises at least 3 radar nodes having an overlapping scan pattern of an atmosphere region.

14. The system of claim 1 wherein the radar nodes generate reflectivity data.

15. The system of claim 14 further comprising a data processor that processes reflectivity data.

16. The system of claim 1 wherein the velocity processor computes velocities using a spherical coordinate system located relative to a network location.

17. The system of claim 16 wherein the coordinate system has an equator and a reference meridian at a center of the network.

18. The system of claim 16 wherein the network has a constant voxel volume across an overlapping region of the network region.

19. The system of claim 16 further comprising a synthesized spherical coordinate system.

25. The method of claim 10 further comprising performing iterative error minimization of the velocity data.

26. The method of claim 10 further comprising unfolding the velocity data.

27. The method of claim 10 further comprising using a plurality of at least three Doppler radar nodes.

28. The method of claim 10 further comprising using a plurality of velocity processors.

20. A method of measuring atmospheric wind velocity comprising:

sensing velocity data at a plurality of radar nodes;

transmitting the sensed velocity data using a communication network to a velocity processor; and

determining a velocity distribution in a region using velocity data from the plurality of radar nodes in a scan interval.

21. The method of claim 20 further comprising determining a signal-to-noise ratio in the velocity data received from the plurality of radar nodes.

22. The method of claim 20 further comprising determining a radial velocity spectral width of a velocity spectrum.

23. The method of claim 20 further comprising processing the velocity data using a velocity processor in a scan interval of 2 minutes or less.

24. The method of claim 20 further comprising determining the velocity distribution in a radar network including the plurality of nodes, each node being less than 60 miles from an adjacent node.

29. The method of claim 20 wherein the plurality of radar nodes each have a scanning region, the scanning regions of adjacent nodes having an overlapping region for at least a portion of said scanning regions.

30. The method of claim 20 further comprising displaying the velocity data on a display.

31. The method of claim 20 further comprising processing data using a geo-centered spherical coordinate system.

32. The method of claim 31 wherein the coordinate system uses an equator and reference meridian located in relation to position of the radar reader.

33. The method of claim 31 wherein the coordinate system is located at a center of the network.

34. The method of claim 31 wherein data from each node is transformed to the coordinate system.

35. A networked radar system for measuring velocity of atmospheric events comprising:

a networked radar system having a plurality of radar nodes, each radar node sensing radar data within a three dimensional volume metric region during a scan interval; and

a processor connected to the networked radar system, the processor receiving data from each of the radar nodes for each scan interval and that processes the data to generate data products for each scan interval.

36. The system of claim 35 further comprising a control system connected to the radar nodes, the control system generating a plurality of scan parameters to control operation of the radar nodes.

37. The system of claim 35 wherein the processor computes velocity data from the plurality of nodes using a single coordinate system having a reference location in the network.

38. The system of claim 36 wherein the scan parameters include pulse repetition frequency and pulse length.

39. The system of claim 35 wherein the system further comprises a plurality of velocity processors, each velocity processor computing velocities for different pluralities of radar nodes.

40. The system of claim 35 further comprising a display that displays velocity data.