Multifunction Phased Array Radar (MPAR) John Cho 18 November 2014 Sponsors: Michael Emanuel, FAA Advanced Concepts and Technology Development (ANG-C63) Kurt Hondl, NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory Distribution Statement A. Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited. This work is sponsored by the Federal Aviation Administration under Air Force Contract #FA8721-05-C-0002. Opinions, interpretations, recommendations and conclusions are those of the author and are not necessarily endorsed by the United States Government.
MPAR Concept Current Aircraft and Weather Radars Terminal Area Aircraft Weather ASR-8 ASR-9 ASR-11 TDWR Multifunction Phased Array Radar (MPAR) Aircraft Weather Ground Based UAS Sense and davoid FPS Long Range Aircraft ARSR-1/2 ARSR-3 ARSR-4 Non-Cooperative Target Multifunction Radar CARSR Long Range Weather NEXRAD Multiple stove-piped radars Rotating dish technology Many nearing end-of-life Has potential to lower cost by Reducing number of radar units Lowering O&M (no moving parts) Streamlining support infrastructure Simplifying training and logistics Open systems procurement and maintenance Increased performance benefits MPAR - 2
Potential Reduction in Number of Radars 600 of Radars Required Number 500 400 300 200 100-16% -28% -34% TMPAR (4-m antenna) MPAR (8-m antenna) Legacy 0 FAA Only FAA + NOAA FAA + NOAA + Air Force 1 2 3 4 5 6 ASRs + ASRs + ASRs + TDWR TDWR + TDWR + NEXRAD NEXRAD + LRRs Greater potential cost savings if more stakeholders join MPAR - 3 TMPAR = Terminal MPAR LRR = Long Range Radar
Potential Federal Enterprise Capability Enhancements Improvements to Current Missions Weather Air Surveillance Observation and Prediction Emerging Needs Wind Farm New User Entrants Mitigation Mitigates t equipage Extends high-quality h Broad-spectrum Provides noncooperative failures to observation to small clutter cooperative / and medium airports suppression target positions dependent aircraft Enhanced target acquisition and tracking Smaller RCS detection Improved clutter performance Icing risk identification Hail identification Improved forecasts Longer lead times for severe weather warnings Improved low altitude target detection and tracking Eliminate weather false-alarms on ATC displays Offers support to avoidance and well-clear policies and applications MPAR - 4 RCS = radar cross section
NextGen Surveillance and Weather Radar Capability (NSWRC) Some Candidate NSWRC Solutions Single Function Radar (One-to-one legacy replacement) L, S, and C bands Multifunction High Density Short Range Radar Network X band MPAR S band Low technical risk Limited capability to address operational shortfalls and emerging needs High technical risk Risk reduction for weather surveillance by NSF s CASA program Near-surface coverage benefit High technical risk High capability enhancement potential Potential ti life cycle cost reduction Risk reduction required to validate MPAR as viable solution MPAR - 5 CASA = Collaborative Adaptive Sensing of the Atmosphere
Outline Introduction Notional requirements and design Risk reduction activities Summary MPAR - 6
MPAR Requirements Notional Functional Requirements jointly being developed by FAA and NOAA mainly based on requirements for current radars Requirements added to anticipate emerging needs Terminal aircraft RCS Reduced from 1 m 2 to 0.25 m 2 Aircraft height estimation accuracy introduced 500 ft rms (0.25 30 nmi), 1000 ft rms (30 60 nmi), 2000 ft rms (60 150 nmi), 3000 ft rms (150 250 nmi) Wind turbine clutter mitigation RCS = 1m 2, P d = 80%, 1000 ft above wind farm Precipitation volume scan update period reduced to 60 sec Requirements still evolving, will adapt to stakeholder composition MPAR - 7
Legacy Requirements That Drive MPAR Performance Function Angular Maximum Range Required Coverage Resolution for Detection of 1m 2 Target Range Altitude Az El Waveform Scan Period Terminal Area Aircraft Surveillance (ASR-9/11) En Route Aircraft Surveillance (ARSR-4) 55 nmi 60 nmi 25,000' 1.4 5 o ~18 pulses PRI ~ 1 ms 210 nmi 250 nmi 100,000' 1.4 2.0 ~10 pulses PRI ~ 3 ms 5 sec 12 sec Airport Weather (TDWR) 250 nmi 48 nmi 70,000' 1 0.5 ~70 pulses PRI ~ 0.6 ms >180 sec Nationwide Weather (NEXRAD) 260 nmi 250 nmi 70,000' 1 1 ~50 pulses PRI ~ 1 ms >240 sec Weather surveillance drives requirements for radar power and aperture size Aircraft surveillance drives requirements for beam management and revisit it time MPAR - 8
MIT LL MPAR Concept Design Two 6 x 2 beam clusters Aircraft Surveillance Aircraft (up to 24 linear pol beams) Four radiating aperture faces Antenna beam diversity Weather Surveillance - Optimize energy-on-target vs. volume coverage - High sensitivity vs. rapid scanning Challenging Straightforward Weather (up to 12 linear pol beams) Frequency: 2.7-2.9 GHz Diameter: 4m & 8m T/R per face: 5,000 / 20,000 Beamwidth: 2 / 1 (broadside) Array cost/m 2 : $50k Polarization: Dual linear/circular Beam count: > 10 beams Bandwidth: ~3 MHz Duty cycle: 8% Peak power: 8W/element MPAR - 9
MPAR Adaptive Beam Scanning Example Aircraft Surveillance Weather Sensing Dual Pol Horizon Weather Scan Single Pol Aircraft and Weather Volume Scan Single Pol Aircraft Tracking Dual Pol Weather Tracking Repeat MPAR - 10
Outline Introduction Notional requirements and design Risk reduction activities Summary MPAR - 11
Key Risk Reduction Activities Antenna Cost Dual polarization performance for weather Manufacturability Calibration and reliability Asynchronous operation and self-interference Back end Receiver cost Adaptive multifunctional resource management Open modular architecture Operational RF spectrum resource usage Wind-shear detection performance Radar mission prioritization MPAR - 12
MPAR Risk Reduction Timeline Panel Subarray Ten-Panel Demonstrator Advanced Technology Demonstrator (ATD) Amplitude (db) -10-20 -30-40 Gen 1 Panel 0 Gen 2 Panel Portable Platform Full Scale Radar Testing -50-60 -40-20 0 20 40 60 Angle (deg) Test and Eval 2 Panel Subarray Performance Assessment Aircraft and Weather Mode Development FY 07-11 FY 12 FY 13-15 FY15-17 Component and board development Range testing Initial cost / performance data Component re-spin Tileable panels Backplane design Thermal Design Range testing Quantify polarization Digital beam clusters Verify thermal mgmt Initial radar testing Support IARD Demonstrate full scale radar Real time radar backend Multiple mode processing Adaptive resource mgmt Flexible test asset Support IID MPAR - 13 IARD = Investment Analysis Readiness Decision IID = Initial Investment Decision
MIT LL Government Proof of Concept (GPC) MPAR Antenna Panel RF Chip Set T/R Module Radiator Beamformer 0.18 High Power Amplifier RF Transmit Chip RF Receive Chip 1.25 MPAR panel attributes 2.7-2.9 GHz operating band 900 W peak RF transmit power Dual simultaneous receive polarization Low production cost ($8k per panel) Low cost and high performance met by Design for manufacturability Low cost transmit/receive modules Scalable aperture design Digital subarray architecture MPAR Panel 16 MPAR - 14
2-Panel Subarray Testing Test Chamber Measurements Hanscom Field Measurements Far-field amplitude of Mpar Testing5.nsi 50.00 40.00 Elevation (deg) 30.00 20.00 10.00 0.00-10.00-20.00-30.00 0-2 -4-6 -8-10 -12-14 -16-18 -20-22 -24-26 -28-30 -32-34 -36-38 -40-42 -44-46 -48-50 -52-54 -56-58 -60-40.00 00-50.00-50.00-40.00-30.00-20.00-10.00 0.00 10.00 20.00 30.00 40.00 50.00 Azimuth (deg) Panels are achieving objective performance MPAR - 15
10-Panel Portable Demonstrator Array Operational Parameters Provides critical risk reduction data Digital beam clusters Polarization properties Thermal management effectiveness Initial radar testing Fabrication in progress Field testing in CY15 Parameter Operating Band Peak Transmit Power Weather Sensitivity at 40 km Value 2.7-2.9 GHz 3.5 kw 11 dbz Pulse Width 80 µs Rx Bandwidth 1.0 MHz Receiver Noise Figure 4.7 db Receive Noise Floor -109 dbm Antenna Gain (Transmit) Antenna Gain (Receive) Azimuth Beamwidth 33 db 31 db Tx = 2.5 Rx = 3.0 Elevation Beamwidth Tx = 6.3 Rx = 7.4 Array Elements, Total 640 (40 x 16) Array Size (w, h) 2.0 m x 0.8 m MPAR - 16
Risk Reduction: Path Forward User Community Outreach CONOPS Refinement Performance Requirements Development Advanced Technology Demonstrator (ATD) To replace NWRT SPY-1A antenna 76 panels (4 m x 4 m) Front end: MIT LL GPC panels Back end: Leverage Navy s ACRA program (tentative) Joint funding by NOAA and FAA Technical Risk Reduction Dual-pol weather Beam calibration Adaptive multifunctionality Resource scheduling Range and angular sidelobes Spectrum usage MPAR - 17 ACRA = Affordable Common Radar Architecture NWRT = National Weather Radar Testbed (Norman, OK)
Summary MPAR is a potentially cost-effective and enhanced-performance solution for NextGen Surveillance and Weather Radar Capability (NSWRC) MIT LL has developed a conceptual MPAR system based on legacy and emerging observation needs Next steps: Build and test Advanced Technology Demonstrator to further mitigate technical risk and refine system requirements MPAR - 18