Novel Gyro-TWA Amplifier for High Power mm-wave Radar Remote Sensing

准确地模拟全球气候，并开发能够更可靠地预测天气的工具，对我们所有人都至关重要。为了提高大气模式的质量，我们需要越来越广泛和更灵敏的测量大气成分。特别是，云在地球的大气过程中发挥着巨大的作用，但目前对它们的了解仍然相对较少，部分原因是缺乏测量数据，这种数据的缺乏意味着大气计算机模拟的有效性有限。随着全球变暖的影响，这可能导致大气中更多的水分，增加极端天气事件的频率。因此，提高我们测量云的能力是气候研究人员的一个重要目标。以毫米波长工作的雷达是测量云、冰粒、浮质和火山灰的理想场所，因为它们的工作波长适合于这些大气成分的尺度。然而，目前的毫米波云廓线雷达通常是地面雷达，使用窄频带高功率脉冲放大器，探测极细粒子的最细微集合体的能力有限，特别是在极高的高度，在那里它们与太阳辐射的相互作用非常显著。此外，早期几代云廓线雷达的灵敏度有限，这意味着它们测量速度很慢，只能朝一个方向观察，通常是垂直向上。这种有限的云视图无法捕捉它们真正的三维和动态行为。下一代云廓线雷达将在太空中扫描其波束，以揭示云的结构并记录云块的时间演变，但这需要增加发射功率。我们项目的目的是展示一种新型的高功率宽带毫米波放大器，称为陀螺TWA，其提供了比当前云轮廓雷达中使用的放大器高十倍的可用带宽和高五倍的可用峰值功率。这将导致更高的雷达灵敏度，从而能够在更长的距离或更短的时间内以更高的分辨率测量更小或更细的颗粒。该技术还可能应用于空间碎片的地面测绘，这是包括环境监测卫星在内的所有轨道系统的一个主要考虑因素。该提案是斯特拉斯克莱德大学和圣安德鲁斯大学两个主要毫米波小组之间的合作，他们在高功率毫米波源，雷达，仪器和组件的开发方面拥有数十年的经验和充满活力的国际声誉，以及在商业化，工业合作和实现项目目标方面的良好记录。陀螺TWA代表了一项核心技术，可能导致英国在高功率毫米波雷达领域的领导地位。

Modelling the global climate accurately, and developing tools which can predict the weather more reliably, is of fundamental importance us all. To improve the quality of atmospheric models we need increasingly widespread and more sensitive measurements of atmospheric constituents. In particular, clouds play an enormous role in the earth's atmospheric processes but currently they are still relatively poorly understood, partly due to a lack of measured data, and this lack of data means that atmospheric computer simulations are of limited validity. As global warming takes effect, this can result in more moisture in the atmosphere, increasing the frequency of extreme weather events. Thus, improving our ability to measure clouds is an important goal for climate researchers. Radars which operate with millimetre wavelengths are ideally placed to measure clouds, ice particles, aerosols and volcanic ash since their operating wavelength is appropriate to the scale of these atmospheric constituents. However, current millimetre wave cloud profiling radars, which are usually ground based and use narrow frequency band high power pulse amplifiers, have limited ability to detect the most tenuous ensembles of very fine particles, especially at very high altitudes, where their interaction with solar radiation is highly significant. Furthermore, the limited sensitivity of earlier generations of cloud profiling radars tended to mean they measured slowly and only looked in a single direction, usually vertically upwards. This limited view of clouds then fails to capture their true three dimensionality and dynamic behaviour. The next generation of cloud profiling radars will scan their beam around in space to reveal cloud structure and record the temporal evolution of cloud masses, but this requires increased transmit power.The aim of our project is to demonstrate a new class of high power, wideband millimetre wave amplifier, called a gyro-TWA, which offers a ten-fold increase in available bandwidth and a five-fold increase in available peak power over the amplifiers used in current cloud profiling radars. This will lead to greater radar sensitivity, enabling measurement of smaller or more tenuous particulates, with finer resolution, at longer ranges or in a shorter timescale. The technology also has the potential to be applied to the ground based mapping of space debris, a major consideration for all orbiting systems including environmental monitoring satellites. The proposal is a collaboration between two major millimetre wave groups at the University of Strathclyde and the University of St Andrews who collectively have decades of experience and vibrant international reputations in the development of high power millimetre wave sources, radars, instrumentation and components, plus a strong track record in commercialisation, industrial collaboration, and delivering on project objectives. The gyro-TWA represents a core technology that is likely to lead to UK leadership in the field of high power millimetre wave radar.