Radar Receiver Calibration by Means of Multiple Processing of Weather Echoes

Abstract

In this paper we analyze a method of real-time radar receiver calibration by means of multiple processing of the same meteorological echoes collected during the routine measurements. It is shown that the method is independent of all parameters which aided the mean input power estimates in the same way (e.g., attenuation, radar constants and range) and its accuracy can be increased by increasing the number of the averaged samples. Through simulating typical logarithmic receivers by computer, it is shown that in the nonlinear region of the transfer function, the error in the estimate of the mean input power is less than 0.4 dBm; in the linear region the error is negligible. Finally, the comparison between the mean input power estimates obtained from the method proposed here by utilizing the radar data and from the measurements given by the microwave signal generator is discussed.