DEMONSTRATION OF RADAR REFLECTOR DETECTION AND GROUND CLUTTER SUPPRESSION USING AIRBORNE WEATHER AND MAPPING RADAR

Airborne weather and mapping radar is currently used as a primary navigation aid by helicopters flying instrument approaches to offshore oil rigs. The weather radar approach is a self-contained, on-board navigation procedure that requires no expensive navaids at the landing site. This type of instrument approach has advantages in an overland environment as well, but ground clutter has made the overland application impractical. Ames Research Center has completed the first phase of a cooperative agreement with the University of Nevada to investigate a new concept for detecting ground-based radar reflectors and for eliminating ground clutter with a device called the echo processor (EP). The EP is a signal processor that processes the video signal sent to the radar display identifying radar reflectors placed at a landing site. This paper presents the EP concept and the results of ground- and flight-test investigations.