Section 6: Rdr-4000 Technical Operation; 3D Volumetric Memory Scanning/Processing - Honeywell IntuVue RDR-4000 Pilot's Manual

IntuVue RDR-4000 Weather Radar Pilot's Guide

SECTION 6: RDR-4000 TECHNICAL OPERATION

3D VOLUMETRIC MEMORY SCANNING/PROCESSING

The RDR-4000 collects a complete 3D volumetric scan of all the
weather and terrain ahead of the aircraft. The RDR-4000 contains an
internal worldwide topography database, enabling it to extract ground
clutter without the significant losses associated with signal-based
ground clutter suppression techniques. The data in the memory is
continuously updated and compensated for aircraft movement.
In conventional radar systems, there is a one-to-one real-time
correspondence between the approximately 4-second side-to-side
movements of the antenna, and the radar image update on the displays.
In such systems, the display update is synchronized to the antenna tilt
angle and sweep. Only the data needed for immediate display is
collected and processed. In contrast, the RDR-4000 system has
eliminated this limitation. The mechanical scanning pattern of the
antenna is de-coupled from the weather images shown on the displays.
The radar system continuously scans the entire 3D space in front of the
aircraft and stores all reflectivity data in 3D memory. This memory is
continuously updated with reflectivity data from new scans, and the data
is compensated for aircraft movement. This reflectivity data is extracted
from memory to generate the selected views without having to make
(and wait for) view-specific antenna scans.
3D SCANNING AND PROCESSING
Views are no longer limited to the single diagonal slice that is inherent to
conventional radars. The standard horizontal view of the radar
represents a weather envelope based on flight path slope and corrected
for the curvature of the earth. Horizontal views are generated
independently for each side of the cockpit.
060-4492-000 RDR-4000 Technical Operation
Rev 7, February 2015 53