Optimal Pulse-Doppler Waveform Design for VHF Solid-State Air Surveillance Radar

VHF radars are suitable in some air surveillance applications, due to their cost-effectiveness and the fact that radar cross section of an aircraft is larger at VHF band than at higher frequencies, making detection easier. To ensure coverage of all ranges and velocities of interest, contemporary VHF radars utilize a complex waveform. We formulate the design of this waveform as a multiobjective optimization problem, with signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), Doppler visibility and Doppler resolution as objectives, which should be maximized. We show that the objectives are in conflict and use a particular example to explore the Pareto frontier (PF) for the problem. We find that reasonable tradeoff can be made between SNR and Doppler visibility, leading to an idea of multiple modes of operation, selectable at run time. We conclude that this subject is worth of further investigation, and that finding an efficient method for determining the PF would facilitate further research.