Sidelobe Contamination in Bistatic Radars

The problem of sidelobe contamination in a bistatic network is explored. The McGill bistatic network consists of one S-band Doppler radar and two low-gain passive receivers at remote sites. Operational experience with the bistatic network indicated many cases in which sidelobe contamination seemed nonnegligible. To confirm these findings a sidelobe simulation model was constructed. Comparison between simulations and actual data showed a good reproduction of the observed effect, with differences explained by uncertainties in both transmitter and receiver antenna patterns. It is also shown that this effect may have damaging consequences in Doppler fields in both convective and stratiform precipitation events. An index of contamination is introduced to detect areas of low-quality data.