Ground clutter rejection for weather radar
First Claim
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1. A method of using an airborne weather radar system coupled to a weather radar antenna, the method comprising:
- determining an angle for steering a null toward ground, the null being a rejection attenuation across an angular range;
combining at least two radar returns to form null response data, wherein the null is located in the null response data and the angle and a range to the ground are used to locate the null at the ground to alleviate ground clutter;
sensing weather using the null response data, wherein the angle is determined before the sensing; and
estimating windshear or microburst events.
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Abstract
A weather radar system is coupled to a weather radar antenna. The weather radar system includes a processor for combining or summing portions of the radar return data to obtain a null. The processor associates the null with the ground (e.g., steers the null toward ground or processes data so that the null corresponds to ground) to obtain a null to alleviate ground clutter when sensing weather. The null can be a single null or multiple nulls associated with different ranges.
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Citations
18 Claims
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1. A method of using an airborne weather radar system coupled to a weather radar antenna, the method comprising:
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determining an angle for steering a null toward ground, the null being a rejection attenuation across an angular range; combining at least two radar returns to form null response data, wherein the null is located in the null response data and the angle and a range to the ground are used to locate the null at the ground to alleviate ground clutter; sensing weather using the null response data, wherein the angle is determined before the sensing; and estimating windshear or microburst events. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 18)
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7. A weather radar system coupled to a weather radar antenna, the weather radar system comprising:
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a receive circuit for receiving radar returns received by the weather radar antenna and providing radar return data; and a processor coupled to the receive circuit and receiving the radar return data, the processor configured to determine an angle for steering a null toward ground, the null being a rejection attenuation across an angular range, to direct the null so that the null is correlated with the ground during weather sensing to reduce ground clutter, to combine at least two radar returns to form null response data having the null, to sense weather using the null response data to sample at lower altitudes, and to estimate windshear or microburst events based on the sampling at the lower altitudes, wherein the angle and a range to ground are used to locate the null at the ground before the null response data is formed; wherein the combining applies a tuning vector to achieve multiple nulls, where different elements of the tuning vector are pointed to respective different ranges from the weather radar antenna to the ground clutter. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. An apparatus for sensing weather, the apparatus comprising:
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means for sampling weather radar return data associated with a scan by a weather radar antenna; means for associating a null with the ground, whereby the null reduces ground clutter associated with the weather radar return data, and combining at least two radar returns to form null response data having the null, the means for associating determining an angle for steering the null toward the ground, the null being a rejection attenuation across an angular range; wherein the null is located in the null response data and the angle and a range to the ground are used to locate the null at the ground to alleviate ground clutter; and means for sensing weather using the null response data to sample at lower altitudes and estimating windshear or microburst events based on the sampling at the lower altitudes. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17)
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Specification