Summary
This paper outlines work at La Trobe University on the development of a “fully digital” radar for space weather investigations. The new radar will enhance the existing Tasman International Geospace Environment Radar (TIGER) that probes beyond the horizon, mapping space weather features over the southern ocean by detecting echoes from aurora and other space weather systems modifying the ionosphere. Our innovative design, including integrated signal generation, beam forming and reception, marries advanced signal processing techniques and high end reconfigurable gate arrays to achieve improved performance, plus new, flexible radar operations. A flexible hardware platform will greatly enhance the overall scientific value of the instrument. While normal investigative operations can be maintained, it will also be possible to readily adapt the radar hardware configuration, tailoring it to suit any particular mission. Our vision is an instrument that can grow and evolve along with the ideas of the scientific community who use it. The new radar will be up to sixteen times more sensitive due to the lossless digital phasing system and improved beam forming, it will also provide precise and unambiguous measurements of the direction of arrival (azimuth and elevation angles) of echoes. Because it is a digital system its operation will be very flexible, allowing new definitive experiments to be undertaken. The design aspects of the radar to achieve the performance required to meet the mission objectives of higher time and spatial resolution, as well as new operational modes, are discussed. The “fully digital” radar design will provide essential core technology for the development of the proposed 2.4km Australian Auroral Array