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Part I: Characteristics
by Heiner Kuschel
Low-frequency radars have the potential to counter stealth efforts and detect
low-flying targets beyond the horizon. This paper gives an overview of the
fundamental properties of radars a t metric wavelengths, based on research over
the past few years conducted a t the German Research Institute for High-Frequency
Physics and Radar Techniques (FGAN-FHR).Part 1 of the paper provides an analysis
of radar cross-section to underline the anti-stealth properties of the low-frequency
range and presents simulations as well as measurement results t o demonstrate
the beyond-the-horizondetection and foliage penetration capability of metric
waves. Specific clutter properties are highlighted. Part 2 will consider operational
aspects-target classification, electromagnetic compatibility, jammer
suppression-and applications.
With the advent of stealth technologies to reduce the The radar cross-section (RCS) of a target is related to its
radar cross-section of military aircraft at conventional shape and to its dimensions in terms of wavelengths. It is
radar frequencies, and the ability of military air vehicles strongly dependent on the angle at which the target is
to fly at extremely low altitudes in terrain-data-guided viewed and the polarisation of illumination and reception.
modes, the interest in low-frequency radars, which have In general, three frequency ranges can he defined
the potential to counter stealth efforts and to detect low- according to the dimensions of the target:
flying targets beyond the horizon by diffraction
propagation, has increased. The favourable features of the Rayleigh region, where the target dimensions are
low radar frequencies, however, can only be exploited if small compared to the wavelength
sufficient emphasis is placed on measures to overcome the resonance region, where the wavelength is of the
the drawbacks of using this frequency range, which result same order as the dimensions of the target-up to 10
primarily from an operationally limited antenna aperture wavelengths per target
and a dense spectral coverage in this frequency band. The the optical region, where the target dimensions are
applications of VHF/UHF radars in future air defence large compared to the wavelength.
systems can range from long-range stealth target
detection and tracking, as in a number of Russian built In the VHF/UHF frequency region, where wavelengths
radars, through cueing sensors for weapon system range from 5 m to 30 cm, many military targets are in the
radars, to short-range helicopter detection radar sensors resonance region and the variation of their radar cross-
and passive or semiactive systems. section with frequency displays maxima and minima
The advantages to be expected from the application of at wavelengths corresponding to dominant target
lower radar frequencies can be determined from an dimensions. Prediction of the RCS of a target in the
analysis of the radar crosssection of stealth targets, small resonance region is more complex than in the optical
targets and helicopters, as well as from in-depth study of region, where geometric theory of diffraction (GTD) or
propagation effects and their prediction at low physical optics (PO) approximations can he applied.
frequencies, including diffraction effects, multipath, Closed solutions for RCS problems in the resonance
foliage shadowing, foliage penetration and clutter. These region are only available for simple shapes; the RCS of
matters are considered in Part 1of this paper. more complex targets is obtained from numerical
In Part 2, to be published in a future issue of this solutions of Maxwell's equations. Recent increases in
journal', operational aspects-classification, electro- computing power have made it possible to generate
magnetic compatibility, jammer suppression and the precise predictions of RCS using electromagnetic codes,
applications of VHF/UHF radar-will be considered. such as the method of moments (MOM) or fast multipole
frequem,MHr
a
view from A
b
Fig. 5 (a) RCS, averaged over d 60". of a generic missile. (b) Schematic diagram and (c) photograph of the missile (UK
Crown Copyright)
blade flashes that have both positive and negative Doppler Most helicopters fly with an almost constant rotor
contributions. In the case of an odd-bladed rotor, the speed that varies only a few percent from its nominal
reflection condition will be met by either an approaching rotation rate. They are generally designed for a forward
or a receding blade and thus an odd-bladed rotor shows speed of about 200 km/h, avoiding supersonic noise of the
alternating blade flashes of positive and negative Doppler forward blade tips during flight. Thus, the rotor process
content. The flash period and the flash duration, however, can cover velocities up to Mach 1. Many MTI (moving
are different for odd- and even-bladed rotors: target indicator) radars operating at the classical radar
frequencies have pulse repetition frequencies (PRFs) that
l/(NfH)even number of blades are too low to meet the Nyquist criterion for sampling the
flash period TH=
{
l/(ZNh) odd number of blades
(3 rotor process adequately. For example, at a wavelength of
10 cm a PRF of 6.6 kHz would be required. Operating at
too low a PRF means that not every blade flash will be hit
flash duration At -
i k/(ZxfL) even number of blades
Doppler frequency, HZ
3 Propagation effects
a Multipath
In microwave radar design, the propagation
effects that need to be taken into account are
atmospheric refraction and absorption, rain
attenuation, and niultipath over smooth
surfaces such as water. Low-level target
detection is generally limited to the line-of-
sight at microwave frequencies. At lower
frequencies, in the VHF/UHF range,
atmospheric absorption and attenuation by
precipitation can be neglected, while multipath
becomes a bigger problem, even over land,
since the surfaces involved tend to act more as
-125&1000-750 400-250 0 250 500 750 1000 1250
smooth reflectors at these wavelengths. At low
Doppler frequency. H L
VHF frequencies, even forest canopies can be
b smooth enough to cause multipath
interference. Comparative measurements,
conducted with FGAN-FHRs (the German
Research Institute for High-Frequency Physics
and Radar Techniques') experimental VHF
radar LARA (LArge wavelength RAdar) have
shown that in the lower VHF range (around
60 MHz) a deep multipath null can occur in the
horizon plane; at frequencies in the upper VHF
range (about 216 MHz) degradation due to
multipath has not been found. Close below the
horizon, to about 300 ft below the line-of-sight
(LOS), full recovery of the signal strength was
observed at low VHF frequencies, while at
~ o p p l efrequency,
i Hz higher VHF frequencies a moderate
degradation of about 5 dB per 100 ft was
c
discovered below LOS. Fig. 7 illustrates the
trial geometry and Figs. 8 and 9 show the
measured receiver power (PE)at frequencies
Fig. 6 Helicopter echo spectrum at (a) 5-band, (b) UHF and (c) VHF of 63 and 216 MHz, respectively, together with
(normalised signal power versus Doppler frequency in Hz) calculated values for the same frequencies as a
function of target height above and below LOS,
two pulses are placed on each blade flash. Additionally, using a d~fractionplus multipath model. Calculations are
since the main beam of the radar is, in general, indicated by a solid line with squares. Triangles indicate
comparatively broad due to mobility restrictions on the the measured values.
antenna, the radar dwell time is large also with sufficiently
high update rates. Hence, with a rotation rate of Ve'erificationof low-leuel target detection
3 s/revolution and beam widths in the order of ZO", the Verification of the beyond-the-horizon detection
resulting dwell time of about 170 ms is sufficient for capabilities of VHF/UHF radars was achieved during a
detecting at least two blade flashes from any documented binational French-German measurement campaign
helicopter during one dwell period of the radar. Thus, conducted with the experimental low-frequency radars
-200
.. I I I
trary VHF radar operating at the -90 4 5 40 -75 -70 -65 4
5 Foliage penetration
I I I I I I I
7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
distance, km
a
300 r
50' '
7
I
6
1
5
I
4
I
3
I
2 1
I I
0
distance lo transmitter, km
b
terrain geometry in which a transmitter was located on terrain databases and forest cover is generally only
the slope of a valley and could illuminate a forest area digitised as a surface feature with a constant height and
across the valley on the opposite slope, imitating the possibly a predominant type of vegetation-deciduous or
situation of an airborne platform that illuminates the coniferous. Radar designers can therefore only try to deal
forest from above. The frequency dependence of the with multipath fading using frequency diversity-Le.
foliage attenuation on the slant path was measured using operating at multiple frequencies in parallel or
a receiver inside the forest at different heights. Ageneral sequentially to average the fading-or high-resolution
conclusion that can be drawn from the measurements is largebandwidth signal processing approaches to resolve
that foliage attenuation increases with radar frequency the direct from the multipath target echo, if the low-
and that its average value can he modelled, for example, frequency foliage penetration advantage is to be
by exponential decay models7. In situations like the one exploited.
described, where a potential target is to be detected inside
a forest, close to the forest's boundary, however, 6 Clutter properties
multipath reflections at surfaces outside the forest cause
strong fading and must not be neglected.An illustration of In situationswhere a ground-basedVHF radar is located in
the foliagepenetration propagationpath is given in Fig. 13 hilly terrain and beyond-thehorizon d~fraction
together with measurement results for different receiver propagation provides target detection behind ground
heights (3,5 and 7 m) inside the forest over a frequency obstacles and vegetation, clutter may also occur in
range from VHF to 1G H 9 . shadowed areas. Thus, as a first step in analysing the
The oscillatory variation of multipath with frequency clutter situation of the LARISSA VHF experimental radar,
that can be seen in Fig. 13 can even be modelled ifprecise potential clutter areas were predicted using FGAN-FHR's
terrain information with a resolution of less than a wave radar coverage prediction tool DARWIN9 and measured
length is available. This is not the case for today's digital with the IARISA radar. DARWIN is based on the
# ME0
-5
"
-1 .._ I I I I I I I I U
VHF frequency 1 GHz
b
application of a tropospheric propagation modePo to a structures shows that strong clutter returns correlate
digital terrain database. The DHM745 terrain database with terrain slopes directed towards the radar. This can be
provides digital terrain elevation data with a resolution of observed at a distance of about 5 km to the north-west
about 30 x 30 m in central Europe. (270"-360") and at 9 to 12 km to the south-west
The LARISSA experimental radar system2was used for (180"-210°). A part of this area, shown in Fig. 14, lies
the measurements in its standard chirp pulse below lineof-sight, indicating that low-frequency radar
configuration with a pulse duration of 16 us, a PRF of will also have to deal with clutter from beyond-the-horizon
3 kHz,a radar beamwidth e=20" and a range resolution areas. Flat terrain, illuminated at grazing incidence, as
of AR = 78 m. The LARISSA signal processing provides observed to the north-west (270"-360") at distances
coherent pulse integration over a burst of 512 pulses, beyond 6 km, leads to considerably smaller values of
corresponding to an integration time of about 170 ms. A clutter, which may also result from the sidelobes of strong
Fourier transform yields 512 Doppler channels with a clutter returns from other distances. Due to the large
resolution of 5.86 Hz. Discrete angle measurements were radar antenna beamwidth of 20", neither the influence of
taken with an azimuth spacing of 5", well below the point scatterers like buildings and power lines pylons nor
antenna beamwidth. A data flow of about 1 second was that of different vegetation can be precisely defined. It is,
recorded for each angular position and the data were however, important to be aware of the dynamic range of
analysed offline. possible ground reflectivity. In Fig. 14 the areas of strong
clutter returns are shown as fractions of rays.
Spatial distribution of clutter echoes Spectral analysis of VHF clutter
A comparison of clutter measurements and terrain The clutter spectrum shown in Fig. 15 can be regarded
Fig. 16 Change of pointer from burst 1 to burst 10 KUSCHEL, H., and SCHNEIDER D.: 'Measurement and
simulation of forest attenuation'. FGAN-FHPReport No. 398,
problems will be considered in Part 2 of this paper, which FGAN, 1997
will also present measures for dealing with jamming and 6 HELISTEN, H., ULANDER, L. M. H., GUSTAVSSON, A,
providing electromagnetic compatibility with other users . and MSSON, B.: 'Development of VHF CARABAS 11SAR'.
and present an approach to target classification in a Proc. SPIE, 2747, Orlando, 1996, pp.48-60
frequency range where imaging techniques are hardly 7 BROWN, G. S., and CURRY, W. J.: 'A theory and model for
applicable. I wave propagation through foliage',Radio Sci., 1982, 17, (5).
pp.1027-1034
Acknowledgments 8 SCHNEIDER, D.: Terrain related multipath analysis of
critical parameters'. FGAN-FHR Report No. 18, FGAN, ZOO0
The collaboration of our French partners from DGA- 9 SCHNElDEQ D.. and MULLER, ST.: 'Dokumentation der
CELAR and Tbomson-Airsys in the French-German co- Programmsoftware DARWIN'. FGAN-FHR Report No. 17,
operation on low-frequency radar is gratefully KAN,2000
acknowledged. In particular Yvonnick Hurtaud, 10 LONGLEY, A. G.. RICE, P L. ef ai.: 'Predictions of
Christian Cavallerie and Bernard Olivier have made tropospheric radio transmission loss over irregular terrain'.
very valuable contributions. T h e contributions of the ESSA Tech. Report ERL 79ITS 67, Access No. AD-676874,
following members of the German VHF radar team are 1968
also appreciated: Josef Worms, Dieter Schneider, Peter I1 KUSCHEL, H.: 'Measurement, analysis and processing of
Knott, Hans-Jiirgen Biickmann and J. Kruse and his VHF ground clutter'. IEEE Int. Radar Cod. 2000,Alexandria.
colleagues from EADS. Discussions with and VA USA 7th-12th May 2000, pp 352-358
encouragement from Dr. Alfonso Farina are also
OIEE: 2002
appreciatively acknowledged. First received 8th August and in final form 22nd December 2001.
References
1 Retrieve Remote data without wires!
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radars. Part 2: Applications', Electrun. Cummun. Eng.J.,2002,
14 (to be published)
2 KLISCHEL, H.: 'LARISSA. a large wavelength radar with
interference dependent spectral signal adaptation'. Proc. IEE
Radar Conf. '92, Brighton, UK, 12th-13th October 1992,ZEE
Cunf Publ. No. 365, pp.316319
3 CAVALLAR,C., KUSCHEL. H., et a!.: 'On the verificationof
beyond the horizon detection capabilities of V/UHF radars'.
hoc. SEE Int. Radar Conf., Brest 1999
4 GROBKOPE J.: Wellenausbreitung I u. 2' @I-Hochschulta-
schenbucber nos. 141 and 539, Mannheim, 1970)