This presentation is hosted by Engineers Australia, and provided by the Joint Technical Program of TelSoc's South Australian group. Registration is via the EA website: https://www.engineersaustralia.org.au/event/2021/07/radio-frequency-interferences-radars-38456

The event is at 17:00 Adelaide Time, 17:30 AEST.

Any radar system, be it microwave, or HF radars, operating on a surveillance mode or track modes, are relatively easy to design to the desired end specifications, under ideal conditions, without taking into account any external interferences or internally generated noise factors.

However, the radar data collected in the open-air range are often subjected to Radio Frequency Interferences (RFI). These spurious signals are electromagnetic noise generated by electronic devices external to the measurement radar system such as satellites, communication channels, or other radar systems. The portions of the radar data which have been impacted by RFI must therefore be identified and removed prior to final data re-construction, or else the overall quality of the data product will be a degraded one and not useful.

In addition, the radar data quality is also affected by the wind farm returns which is a modern threat to surveillance radars specifically Air Traffic Control radars. They are known to mask the real aircraft track data leading to catastrophic conditions.

Furthermore, the internal processing of the radar signals is also significantly impacted by various spurious harmonics and phase noise generated in coherent radar transmitters leading to the poor quality of the processed radar data.

This seminar will also touch upon the intentional RF interferences generated by the hostile sources, typically in a battlefield scenario, to jam or mislead the victim radar from their mission goals. The popular techniques of Electronic Attack (EA) and Electronic Protect (EP) will be discussed limited to the Unclassified level of security.