Performance study of a bistatic radar network

Bistatic Doppler radar networks have become in the last five years a viable and inexpensive alternative to multiple-Doppler networks. Operational experience with a bistatic network at McGill University showed many cases in which data quality seemed heavily affected. Study of those situations suggested sidelobe contamination from the transmitter antenna pattern to be the principal cause.To confirm these findings a sidelobe simulation model (SISI model) was constructed. Comparison between simulations and actual data showed a good reproduction of the observed effect. It is also shown that this effect may have damaging consequences in Doppler fields in both convective and stratiform precipitation events. An index of contamination that can be obtained either with the SISI model or directly using the reflectivity bistatic data is introduced to detect areas of low quality data. Recommendations for the effective use of bistatic data are presented.These findings are taken into account when the optimization of the layout of a bistatic network is analyzed. Sidelobe contamination was found to be a serious problem irrespective of the receiver's location. More than one passive receiver increases the extent of the dual Doppler area but unfortunately does not significantly reduce the problem of sidelobe contamination within a predetermined area. A rule-of-thumb for the deployment of a bistatic network is presented. Some suggestions for improvements of the network are given