MPAR Software Upgrades Project

Timeline

Spring 2014

  • Multifunction
    • Aircraft detection and tracking algorithms that are robust in the presence of weather and ground clutter
    • Adaptive scheduling of weather and aviation functions using interlaced scans
    • Integrated radar data displays that show both aircraft and weather information
  • Adaptive weather scanning
    • Adaptive vertical sampling of storms based on their range
    • Radial-by-radial pulse-repetition-time adjustment based on range of storms
    • Adaptive definition of focused weather scans (ADAPTS) based on range of storms
  • Signal processing and software infrastructure
    • On-line measurement of the range correlation to improve performance of range oversampling techniques
    • Development of Staggered Pulse Repetition Time processing mode (non-operational)
    • Significant improvements to the radar user interface to control and monitor the performance of new and existing algorithms
    • Low-latency time-series data-distribution infrastructure to accommodate weather and aviation function processing

Spring 2013

  • A new storm-region (cluster) identification algorithm
  • More adaptive scanning capabilities:
    • Automatic time-based scheduling of storm regions
    • ADAPTS III: scheduling and processing of a detection scan for faster updates with timely detection of newly formed storms
  • RTC improvements to reduce initial range of collection and to allow frequent PRT switching
  • RCI client improvements to control and monitor system and algorithms
  • DSP improvements for ground-clutter and range-and-velocity ambiguity mitigation
  • Software infrastructure improvements to prevent data drops

Fall 2012

  • ADAPTS II: surveillance mode and adaptive spatial sampling
  • Auto PRT algorithm
  • Time and round-robin scheduling of scanning strategies through the user interface
  • On-demand, standardized level-I data format (HDF-5)
  • Standardized level-II data format (XML)
  • Improvements to the noise-power estimator
  • Improvements to the status monitoring through the RCI
  • Long-pulse transmission and processing
  • Faster and more powerful RTC using the newer MVME-5500 board

Spring 2012

  • Improved ADAPTS rules and thresholds
  • Enhancements to the adaptive pedestal control algorithm
  • Velocity display through the RCI
  • Improved ground-clutter residue censoring thresholds
  • Velocity dealiasing in WDSS-II

Fall 2011

  • Adaptive pedestal control algorithm
  • Reflectivity display through the RCI
  • Surveillance function for ADAPTS and surveillance processing mode
  • Improved noise-power calibration
  • Level-I data recording using HDF-5 format
  • Additional metadata on archived level-I data, which will facility playback of archived data with original processing settings

Spring 2011

  • Storm-based automatic scanning strategy adjustments, which allow users to input storm position and motion information to adjust coverage
  • Improvements to CLEAN-AP, including the addition of a clutter model
  • Improvements to range oversampling

Fall 2010

  • Scan processing functionality in the DSP cluster (non operational), which provides infrastructure for adaptive scanning and schedule-based scanning

Spring 2010

  • Adaptive scanning using ADAPTS II (removes scanning strategy limitations of first implementation)
  • Range oversampling with adaptive pseudowhitening (resulted in scanning strategies with 50% update times)
  • Manual real-time scan control through the RCI
  • Manual scheduling of scanning strategies through the RCI

Fall 2009

  • Range oversampling and pseudowhitening (for engineering testing only)
  • Improved noise-power calibration

Spring 2009

  • Strong-point clutter filtering
  • Data quality control using coherency-based censoring
  • Adaptive scanning using ADAPTS
  • Real-time PRT adjustment at the RCI
  • Expanded EP Status reporting at the RCI

Fall 2008

  • Ground clutter filtering using the CLEAN-AP filter
  • Staggered PRT processing (not operational due to PRT-switching limitations)
  • Interference suppression
  • Noise-power calibration
  • DC-bias calibration

Spring 2008

  • Range unfolding using batch-PRT waveforms
  • Matched filtering
  • Data quality control using the signal-to-noise ratio

Fall 2007

  • Multiprocessor system using standard 10 Gigabit Ethernet and COTS hardware
  • Inexpensive, highly-versatile, scalable signal processing environment using the same software infrastructure as the Open RPG

Spring 2007

  • VCP (Stimulus) builder
  • Improvements to data archiving
  • Development and testing of scan table scheduling

Spring 2006

  • Environment Processor conversion from SKY to Matrix PC
  • Radial-by-radial processing
  • Radar Control Interface (RCI) upgrade
  • Remote Control capability