Revista: IEEE Aerospace and Electronic Systems Magazine. Vol. 27. No. 7. Julio 2012

Autores: J. R.O. Fernández, C. Briso; Jaime Calvo; Mateo Burgos; Félix Pérez; V. Araña.

The accurate detection and measurement of high-speed moving targets are very important in Defense and Aerospace systems. In Defense, speed and trajectory analysis of the projectiles is essential for the proper operation of missile systems. In both cases, radar is used to measure the Doppler speed and trajectory of moving targets. This radar has to be calibrated with a reference target to get highly accurate measurements. Doppler radar systems, usually operating in microwave S- or X-band, are advanced systems that measure the speed, range, and elevation angle of a target with high accuracy. With these parameters, radar can get the variation along the distance of the vector velocity of a projectile, and can reconstruct its trajectory. In all cases, radar systems must be carefully calibrated for a correct operation, but usually Doppler radar calibrations are limited to calibrate the reference clock of the system and to verify that sub-systems met its requirements. This calibration is useful for basic accuracy but it does not ensure that critical parameters like radar signal power, Doppler processing measurements, tracking errors, and other parameters are within specifications. For this purpose, it is necessary to use a Doppler radar calibration system to guarantee the accuracy of the response of these systems.