DSA Volume 1 Issue 4 December 2010 - Defence Science and ...

DEFENCE SCIENCE AUSTRALIA
Radar study tool innovation
goes directly to work
A device developed by
DSTO for use in radar
research has gone
virtually straight from
the laboratory bench
into real-world service,
earning accolades from
users around the world.
The apparatus, named the ‘G-Box’ after
its principal developer, Gavin Scarman,
provides an innovative way of gathering
remote phenomenological information
associated with wide bands of highfrequency
(HF) radar transmissions.
“G-Box consists of a digital HF receiver and
timing signal electronics, packaged together
in a small ‘ruggedised’ container, making
it ideally suited to field use under a wide
range of conditions,” explains Scarman.
“Taking an earlier radar receiver system
developed for the Jindalee Over The
Horizon Radar as our starting point, a team
of DSTO’s researchers came together to
develop powerful and versatile firmware
and software for a new kind of apparatus
that would deliver significant advances.”
Flexible, adaptable research tool
The result is a system that provides a cheaper
and more versatile means of undertaking a
number of radar-related research activities,
seen to be far better than those of any other
commercially available product at present.
One of the principal uses it can be applied
to is that of obtaining readings of the state
of the ionosphere, a critical requirement
when evaluations of over-the-horizon radar
system performance are to be carried out.
The G-Box can also serve as a radar receiver,
and if several units are combined, it is capable
of emulating a sophisticated kind of radar
system known as a large aperture array.
From DSTO’s benches to the world
Some twenty G-Box units have now been
produced by DSTO, and a number of these
have gone on loan to organisations both
inside and outside of military circles.
One is in use by the Australian Bureau of
Meteorology to facilitate studies of the
ionosphere above Antarctica. Other places
where G-Box has been put to work include
North Western Australia and the US.
Most notably, the G-Box played a pivotal
role in the joint Australian-US Spatial
Ionospheric Correlation Experiment
campaign, undertaken recently in
the Caribbean to facilitate improved
performance for over-the-horizon radar
systems. The success of this work was
acclaimed by the US Navy Research
Labs in its 2010 Annual Research Awards.
With much having been learnt about
G-Box’s performance through these realworld
uses, the development team is
drawing on this experience to produce
an improved version, to be known as
the Next Generation Radar Receiver.
Background photo: Antenna (centre of image) used during the recent Spatial Ionospheric Correlation Experiment campaign in Caribbean.
Overlay image above: The G-Box system (second from bottom in equipment rack) in use during the Caribbean trials.
Above: The G-Box system with laptop screen featuring HF data obtained.
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