Experimental Results on Rain Detection at Ka-Band based on Range-Doppler Signal Processing

Radar technology in the mm-wave frequency band is a promising approach for local rain detection and classification of precipitation. In this paper we present a Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) radar system with 1Tx and 2Rx operating in the Ka-band from 33.4 GHz to 36.0 GHz. This Radar is a low-cost, portable system that requires minimum supervision in the field. As such, we use this system for structural health monitoring of rotor blades on wind turbines, detection of flying animals e.g. birds and bats and rain detection. When analyzing rain data with Range-Doppler (RD) algorithm, we noticed characteristic patterns of rain, which we investigated more closely. To better understand these patterns we designed an experiment and implemented a numerical modelling framework. Experimental and numerical results for rain detection and classification are presented and discussed here.