We will present the evolution of JPL’s compact multi-frequency cloud radar technology, starting with CloudCube (ESTO IIP-19) and its successful airborne demonstration and concluding with the Next Generation Intelligent Meteorological Radar with a Built-in Understanding of the Scenery (NIMBUS) project.
CloudCube is a Ka-/W-/G-band radar system that builds on the successful heritage of RainCube while extending multi-frequency observations to enable improved characterization of clouds and precipitation. The presentation will summarize recent field deployments, and representative science results demonstrating the capability of compact multi-frequency millimeter-wave radars.
Building on this heritage, NIMBUS represents the next generation of intelligent atmospheric radar systems by combining three key innovations to enable autonomous, ultra-compact atmospheric observations. First, it uses a radar-on-a-chip architecture that integrates millimeter-wave electronics into silicon RFICs, significantly reducing the radar's size, weight, power, and cost. Second, it incorporates RF photonic sources that provide the ultra-low phase noise required for pulse-compression techniques, reducing range sidelobes and improving performance in the presence of strong surface clutter. Third, NIMBUS integrates onboard artificial intelligence to dynamically adapt radar operating modes, maximizing scientific return while operating within a constrained power budget. Together, these technologies enable a new class of intelligent, agile, and highly compact atmospheric radars capable of observing a broad range of atmospheric phenomena from future airborne and spaceborne platforms.