Weather radar system

• US 9,817,115 B2
• Filed: 06/11/2013
• Issued: 11/14/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 06/11/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Bradar Indústria SA
• Original Assignee: Bradar Indústria SA
• Inventors: Moreira Neto, Joo Roberto, Miguel Miranda, Marco Antnio, Rodrigo Steffens, Csar
• Primary Examiner(s): Sotomayor, John B
• Application Number:
  US14/407,189
• Publication Number:
  US 20150177377A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,617 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/426 Scanning radar, e.g. 3D radar G01S13/66 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/9082 Rotating SAR [ROSAR]
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/95 for meteorological use
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/951 ground based
• CPC Class Codes: G01W 1/02 Instruments for indicating weather conditions by measuring two or more variables, e.g. humidity, pressure, temperature, cloud cover or wind speed G01W1/10 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 13/20 Non-resonant leaky-waveguide or transmission-line antennas; Equivalent structures causing radiation along the transmission path of a guided wave
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 21/0056 Conically or cylindrically arrayed
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 3/08 for varying two co-ordinates of the orientation
• 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

Weather radar system which uses antennas constituted by the elongated aperture of waveguides, and form at least an array (510, 520) mounted on a rotating horizontal (502), and the said apertures are as wide as one wavelength (λ) and length higher than 20λ, wherein the small aperture in azimuth ranges from 0.5° to 2° and is synthesized by high rotational speeds together with signal processing techniques such as ROSAR.

Claims

1. A weather radar system comprising a rotating base around a vertical axis, on which at least one array of antennas is mounted, the azimuth radiation of said antenna arrays being synthesized by the ROSAR technique producing an equivalent resolution between 0.5 and 2 degrees wherein the antennas comprise waveguides whose radiating apertures are shaped as narrow vertical rectangular apertures, wherein said waveguides are radially arranged around said axis, wherein a variation of the radiation angle in elevation between 0 and 90°

is provided by a support device comprising three horizontal platforms, of which at least one is vertically displaceable.

2. A weather radar system, as claimed in claim 1, wherein the radiating aperture of each antenna comprises a rectangle whose horizontal size is of the order of one wavelength and the vertical size is greater than 20 wavelengths.

3. A weather radar system as claimed in claim 1 wherein, the rotational speed of the said array is given by the expression

4. A weather radar system, as claimed in claim 1, wherein each said antenna array comprises a transmitting antenna and at least a receiving antenna, pair, said receiving antennas being angularly arranged.

5. A weather radar system as claimed in claim 4, wherein said transmitting antenna is positioned at the center of the angle formed by said receiving antenna pairs.