Atmospheric refraction correction technology for space target surveillance radar

Owing to the inhomogeneous distribution of the atmospheric medium, there exists a refraction effect on the radio waves propagating in the atmosphere, which will reduce the detection accuracy of radar. The radar detection of space targets is affected mainly by the ionosphere. In this paper, a now-casting model of the ionospheric refractivity profile is developed by using TEC data assimilation, and the real-time construction of the ionospheric refractivity profile is accomplished. On this basis, the refraction error correction of the space target is completed by using the ray tracing method. The results show that compared with the International Reference Ionosphere (IRI) model, the ionospheric refractivity profile established by the ionospheric assimilation now-casting model significantly improves the accuracy of the refraction error correction.