Improving efficiency of radar observations of navigation situation in ice radars under strong interference

Abstract

The article considers the specific features of radar observations of the surrounding navigation situation in ice radars (IR) in polar latitudes and the reasons of their possible decreasing effectiveness. There is described a negative effect of the radio waves received by IR due to their reflection from hydrometeorological formations that occupy a large area of the scanned navigation space. The possible ways of improving the IR operation and creating the necessary conditions are analyzed. It has been inferred that in the case of observing the small-sized objects against the background of a strong extended hydrometeorological interference, digital processing of radar data slightly improves functioning of ice locators. It has been found out that in order to improve detecting small targets and measuring their parameters, it is necessary to ensure the safety of the radar from possible overload caused by the interference at the stage of primary processing of radar information (before using a digital filter). The structure of the device is proposed, which allows not only partial weakening the hydrometeorological interference in the IR operation, but also suppressing this interference. It is stated that improving the locator noise immunity during its operation is achieved by using the additional blocks in its composition that quickly detect short-term pulses caused by reflection from small-sized targets in the processed radar signal and convert them into a form in which it is possible to almost completely compensate for continuous interference. The method of mathematical modeling is used to study the effectiveness of the proposed device by measuring the signal-to-noise ratio achieved in it, the reaction time, and the structure of radar signals after their processing. According to the analysis results of the mathematical experiment there have been made the conclusions about the lack of factors limiting the possibility of using the proposed device as part of IR and the optimal variant of its implementation.