A new concept for radiated testing of airborne Doppler weather radar with forward looking windshear detection capability

It has been demonstrated by NASA in flight tests that an airborne Doppler radar can reliably detect and provide advanced warning of hazardous windshears, even in the presence of severe ground clutter. A full scan far field radiated test of an installed airborne Doppler radar has to date been extremely difficult to achieve if not impossible. The paper describes a testing technique that allows radiated testing of an installed airborne radar while on the flightline without any interconnections. The performance of the airborne Doppler radar is discussed first, followed by the requirements of the flightline tester necessary to verify this performance.