Effect of charged sand grains in strong sandstorms on microwave radar range

Abstract

In this paper, the range of low-frequency microwave radar going through sand storms is numerically investigated with considering the attenuation and backscattering of charged sand grains along the link. It was found that strong sandstorms can reduce the range of microwave radar, which is reduced by < 5 % for radars at the L and S bands when the visibility is larger than 50 m; while with the visibility of 10 m, the radar range at the L(1.215G Hz), S(3 GHz), and X(10 GHz) bands is reduced by 27.69 %, 31.90 % and 89.69 %. The charges carried by sand grains increase the reduction. Due to the scattering of radar waves by sand grains along the link, the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) will decrease with the radar detection distance. Near the radar system, SNR decreases rapidly due to the strong attenuation of sand storms, which will cause a detection blind zone near the radar systems, which is related to the visibility, the RCS, and radar frequency. Charges carried on sand grains reduce the SNR to expand the blind zone in sandstorms. Given the target, it is necessary to increase the radar frequency or reduce the minimum detectable SNR of a radar system to avoid the detection blind zone near the radar.