Small Business ERC Collaborative Opportunity to Speed Implementation of CASA Phased Array Ideas to Market

实际大规模部署由数十或数百部天气雷达组成的网络，将需要一种商业上可用的小型雷达技术，这种技术可以获得，安装在现有的基础设施上，并以低成本进行维护。第一，射频认为，电子扫描相控阵技术是这方面的基本使能技术，因为这种雷达可以部署在建筑物和塔楼的侧面，经常性维护费用非常低。与相控阵相关的挑战之一是长期的系统校准。校准是维持最佳运行的必要条件，因为相控阵天线由许多需要精确控制以产生高增益天线波束方向的射频电子元件组成。FIRST射频公司正在与CASA大气协作自适应传感工程研究中心(马萨诸塞大学阿默斯特分校)合作，开发和改进观察、理解、预测和应对危险天气事件的技术。First RF和CASA希望在我们合作设计的相控阵雷达平台的基础上，将内置校准功能整合到相位倾斜天气雷达中，并利用新的功能收集高保真数据，以研究天气条件对整体系统性能和校准功能的影响。这项建议的目标是：(1)通过增加内置校准功能来提高我们现有相控阵技术的性能；(2)通过识别不符合规格的特定部件并报告需要的特定维修来减少维修时间和成本；以及(3)利用新的内置校准硬件来研究降雨条件对损耗和去极化的影响。通过这项工作，PIS的愿景是提供负担得起的高性能雷达平台，为研究、教育以及最终的公共安全提供高分辨率数据。产生的数据量将为研究生和本科生提供多年的研究机会，来自该研究的数据产品不仅将有助于理解天气形成和预测的机制，还将直接帮助对影响生活的天气事件做出对时间敏感的关键决策。

Practical large-scale deployments of networks of dozens or hundreds of weather radars will require a commercially-available small radar technology that can be acquired, installed on existing infrastructure and maintained at low cost. FIRST RF believes that electronically scanned phased array technology is the essential enabling technology in this context since such radars can be deployed on the sides of buildings and towers operated with very low recurring maintenance costs. One of the challenges associated with phased arrays is long term system calibration. Calibration is imperative to maintain optimum operation because phased array antennas comprise of many RF electronic components requiring precise control to yield high gain antenna beam steering.FIRST RF Corporation is partnering with the CASA Engineering Research Center for Collaborative Adaptive Sensing of the Atmosphere (University of Massachusetts Amherst) to develop and improve technology for observing, understanding, predicting, and responding to hazardous weather events. Together, FIRST RF and CASA desire to incorporate built-in-calibration into the Phase-Tilt weather radarbased on our collaboratively designed phased array radar platform, and utilize the new capabilities to collect high-fidelity data to research the effects of weather conditions on overall system performance and calibration functionality. The goals of this proposal are to: (1) Improve performance of our existing phased array technology by adding built-in calibration functionality; (2) Reduce time and cost of repairs by identifying specific components that have fallen out of specification, and reporting specific repairs needed, and; (3) Utilize the new built-in-calibration hardware to research the effects of rainfall conditions on loss and depolarization. Through this work the vision of the PIs is to provide affordable and high-performance radar platforms to produce high resolution data for research, education, and ultimately, public safety. The amount of data produced will provide many years of research opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students alike, and the data products from that research will not only aid in the understanding of the mechanisms of weather formation and prediction, but also directly aid in making time-sensitive critical decisions about weather events that impact lives.