An X-band solid-state FM-CW weather radar

FM-CW radar has grown to a mature state owing to new breakthroughs in microwave and computer hardware. Applications of FM-CW radar so far have been mainly in the field of tropospheric research, meteorology and ship navigation. The paper describes a radar to be used for rain-rate determination and rain-cell contouring. The central themes are system fundamentals, system design and construction, and real-time processing of the radar. The new radar is purely solid state, with a CW power of 1 watt. Owing to the use of X-band frequencies, the radar waves need to be corrected for spatial expansion and for rain-induced attenuation along the radar path, using real-time processing. Results demonstrate the potential capability for suppressing coherent ground clutter as well as for detecting rain cells.