Method and apparatus to minimize the effects of radar anomalous propagation for air traffic control

Abstract

To minimize the effects of radar anomalous propagation for air traffic control, the range of a radar terminal is extended to build an extended clutter map, and the extended clutter map in turn is used to identify areas in radar returns where anomalous propagation may be falsely reporting ground clutter as weather. The extended clutter map includes a database of radar returns, and the method includes the step of comparing ongoing radar returns with the radar returns in the database to detect matches or correlations. To utilize existing radar terminals, the operating range of the existing terminal is extended with a higher-efficiency radar transmitter, higher-sensitivity receiver, or both. The performance improvement is in the range of 6 to 10 dB or more. The increased receiver sensitivity allows a greater volume of receive beam sampling and therefore an increased number of Doppler filter banks in which to detect and classify target primitives.

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