JORN: Backscatter radar for Australian Wide Area Surveillance

R.I BARNES
DSTO, Australia

The Australian Defence Science and Technology Organisation has been investigating Over-The-Horizon backscatter radar (OTHR) technology for 40 years. This started with some relatively primitive HF experiments, grew through the development and operation of the Jindalee radar at Alice Springs, and has culminated in the creation of the multi-radar Jindalee OthR Network (JORN). The JORN was initially costed at about A$1B and was to be delivered in 1997. The final cost is likely to be closer to A$1.7B delivered in 2002. This talk will give a brief history of OTHR development in DSTO, and why it plays a central role in Australia's surveillance needs. An update on the progress of the development of the JORN will be included. The bulk of the talk will concentrate on the measurements made by the Jindalee radar frequency management and coordinate registration support systems, where extensive databases of backscatter, vertical and one-way oblique incidence measurements have been established. Although analysis on this data is necessarily directed towards improving OTHR operationally, the analysis has revealed many interesting ionospheric features that should be of interest to the broader ionospheric and radio propagation communities.

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