Array self-calibration for sky-wave over-the-horizon radar with gain-phase errors

Abstract

This study proposes a novel algorithm for sky-wave over-the-horizon (OTH) radar array self-calibration with angle-independent gain-phase errors. The proposed method exploits backscattered echo from an ionised meteor trail, which can be considered as disjoint sources of opportunity for their spatial and temporal fluctuations during coherent processing interval (CPI). Moreover, this novel self-calibration algorithm can non-iteratively and jointly estimate the gain-phase errors as well as the directions of arrival (DOA) of all the echoes even in large array errors. Simulations illustrate the good performance and efficiency of the method.

Keywords

• direction-of-arrival estimation
• HF radio propagation
• calibration
• radio links
• ionospheric electromagnetic wave propagation
• array signal processing
• electromagnetic wave scattering
• sky-wave over-the-horizon radar array self-calibration
• angle-independent gain-phase errors
• echo
• ionised meteor trail
• spatial fluctuations
• temporal fluctuations
• array errors
• novel self-calibration algorithm
• coherent processing interval