DDMA-MIMO/Capon Observations Using the MU Radar: Beamwidth Verification Using the Moon's Reflection

Abstract

Phased-array technology is primarily employed in atmospheric and wind profiling radars for meteorological remote sensing. As a novel avenue of advancement in phased-array technology, the Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) technique, originally developed for communication systems, has been applied to radar systems.A MIMO radar system can be used to create a virtual receive antenna aperture plane with transmission freedom. The MIMO technique requires orthogonal waveforms on each transmitter to identify the transmit signals using multiple receivers; various methods have been developed to realize the orthogonality. In this study, we focus on the Doppler Division Multiple Access (DDMA) MIMO technique by using slightly different frequencies for the transmit waveforms, which can be separated by different receivers in the Doppler frequency domain.The Middle and Upper atmosphere (MU) radar is a VHF-band phased array atmospheric radar with multi-channel receivers. Additional configurations are necessary, requiring the inclusion of multi-channel transmitters to enable its operation as a MIMO radar.In this study, a comparison between the brightness distribution of the beamformer, utilizing echoes reflected from the moon, and the antenna pattern obtained through calculations revealed a high degree of consistency, which means that the MU radar functions effectively as a MIMO radar. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that the simultaneous application of MIMO and Capon techniques has a mutually enhancing effect.