Through-the-Sensor Weather Processing

Current and future weather conditions greatly affect military operations. Nonetheless, many at-sea naval vessels and military detachments deployed around the globe lack organic weather radar information. Satellite sensors and receivers can provide near real-time cloud cover information, but even this is often not continuously available. Within battlefield and ship-based radars, meaningful weather information is discarded and never made available to operators.

Using ‘Through-the-sensor’ processing, tactical radars can effectively provide weather radar data as a secondary output from their normal operation. BCI has developed a real-time adjunct weather processor that converts tactical radar returns into meaningful weather radar information. The passive interface from the radar to the Weather Extractor Computer (WEC) means there is no impact on the tactical operation of the radar.

About the Weather Extractor Computer

The WEC is a commercial PC based signal processor system that extracts weather data returns from a tactical radar data feed in parallel to the radar's normal mission.  The  WEC system was originally designed for the AN/SPS-48E radar as the main component of the Hazardous Weather Detection and Display Capability (HWDDC), with at-sea deployments made on the USS PELELIU and the USS GEORGE WASHINGTON.  The modular software designed for the WEC allows for porting to other radars - currently WEC variants are being developed for the Navy's AN/SPY-1 radar and the Air Force's TPS-75 radar.