Analysis of the Target Detection Performance of Air-to-Air Airborne Radar Using Long-Range Propagation Simulation in Abnormal Atmospheric Conditions

In this paper, we propose the analysis of the target detection performance of air-to-air airborne radars using long-range propagation simulations with a novel quad-linear refractivity model under abnormal atmospheric conditions. The radar propagation characteristics and the target detection performance are simulated using the Advanced Refractive Effects Prediction System (AREPS) software, where the refractivity along the altitude, array antenna pattern, and digital terrain elevation data are considered as inputs to obtain the path loss of the wave propagation. The quad-linear model is used to approximate the actual refractivity data, which are compared to the data derived using the conventional trilinear refractivity model. On the basis of the propagation simulations, we propose a detection performance metric in terms of the atmosphere (DPMA) for intuitively examining the long-range propagation characteristics of airborne radars in air-to-air situations. To confirm the feasibility of using the DPMA map in various duct scenarios, we employ two actual refractive indices to observe the DPMA results in relation to the height of the airborne radar.