The Spaced Antenna Technique for Radar Wind Profiling

Abstract

The Doppler method for radar wind profiling of the troposphere and stratosphere has been the standard technique used for operational and most research applications of the instrumentation. An alternative approach for measuring winds, by making use of scattering and reflection from variations in the refractive index, is what is known as the spaced antenna technique. This technique has received little attention so far, and few comparisons of the two techniques have been carried out, in spite of the fact that results to date indicate that there can be some advantages of the spaced antenna method over the Doppler method, especially when small-antenna and low-power VHF systems are being considered. We describe the technique and summarize the diverse results that relate to a comparison between the Doppler and spaced antenna methods. The expected advantages of the spaced antenna method for small radar systems are also described.