Calibration of Phased-Array High-Frequency Radar on an Anchored Floating Platform

Abstract

Prior studies have highlighted the importance of calibrating receiver antennas in target direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation and surface current measurement for high-frequency (HF) radar systems. It is worth noting that the calibration contributes to the performance of both shore-based HF radar and platform-mounted HF radar. Compared with shore-based HF radar, the influence of six-degrees-of-freedom (six-DOF) platform motion should be considered in the calibration of platform-mounted HF radar. This paper initially describes a calibration scheme that receives phasedarray antennas for an anchored platform-mounted HF radar incorporating a model of free rotation, which is called yaw rotation and dominates the six-DOF platform motion in this study. In the presence of yaw rotation, the amplitude and phase of the source calibration signal from the other shore-based radar sites reveal the directional sensitivity of the receiver phased-array antennas. The calibration of receiver phased-array antennas is composed of channel calibration (linking cables and receiver hardware calibration) and antenna pattern calibration. The antenna pattern at each bearing can be represented by the Fourier series. The estimation of channel calibration and antenna pattern calibration depends on an overdetermined HF radar system consisting of observed values and theoretical constraints, so the least-squares fits of the channel calibration coefficients and antenna pattern calibration coefficients are obtained. The experimental results show that the target DOA estimation and surface current measurement can be improved if the phased-array platform-mounted HF radar system is calibrated.

A Unified Formulation for the Computation of the Six-Degrees-of-Freedom-Motion-Induced Errors in Floating Doppler Wind LiDARs

“…Opposite to other floating remote-sensing devices such as high-frequency surfacewave radars, which measure the horizontal propagation of waves and thus are not sensitive to heave-induced Doppler effect [56,57], the ZephIR TM 300 FDWL is sensitive to all three translational motion components due to its inherent conical scanning pattern [16].…”

Development of the Phaseless Calibration Algorithm for a Digital Antenna Array

“…Calibration of antenna arrays is in demand in complexes of various purposes. These are multi-user MIMO systems [29,30]; various on-board aviation systems [31,32]; ground and satellite stations [33][34][35][36]; and even floating [37] or rotational platforms [38]. Calibration algorithms are constantly being improved, new ones are appearing, and known methods are being experimentally studied [39][40][41].…”

2D-DOA Estimation in Multipath Using EMVS Rectangle Array

“…Array signal processing is a rapidly developing field, with direction of arrival (DOA) estimation being a particularly popular topic [1][2][3][4][5]. The goal of DOA estimation is to determine the direction of signal arrival by extracting the invariant phase difference between array elements from spatial information, among other factors.…”