Editor's comments

Abstract

ASTRID is a VHF (206.5 MHz) radar used for wind profiling. It consists of 12 clusters of 49 elements installed on a rooftop in the Himalayan region of India. When the radar began operation, it became clear that the signals scattered from the surrounding mountains produced such strong interference that the radar couldn't achieve its purpose. The paper by S. Bhattacharjee, M. Naja, and S. Anathakrishnan describes how the source of the problem was identified. The design and construction of a metal wire-grid fence surrounding the rooftop to shield the array from the interference is described, and the successful results of this solution were demonstrated with measurements. This is an example of where simple but clever engineering made the difference in an instrument being operational.