Multi-function, open-source, reconfigurable test & measurement platform used for high resolution radar/broadband data processing
Slovenia, August 2018: Red Pitaya, the company that is pioneering the move to low cost, open-source, reconfigurable instrumentation with its credit-card-sized STEMlab™ platform, is proud to announce that its STEMlab test and measurement solution has been selected for high resolution radar/broadband data processing in a new dense network of dual-mission HF radars costing only $300 proposed by the well respected Electrical and Computer Engineering Professor, geospace scientist, and expert in remote sensing hardware/software, Michael Hirsch, Ph.D., from Boston, MA, USA.
The proposed PiRadar solution costs 95% less than contemporary radar nodes using the latest COTS SDR technology and simultaneously offers polarization-sensitive ionosphere probing with 1-25 km range resolution and relaying of data over the horizon at 1-20+ kpbs rates. This enables the deployment of networks dense and distributed enough to make real-time 3-D images of the ionosphere at a much lower cost than traditional single-site radars. This makes the solution ideal even for hobby scientists and schools. PiRadar nodes work together as an infrastructure-less self-organizing network, transmitting pseudo-noise CDMA waveforms hundreds of kilometers in the shortwave radio bands. PiRadar waveforms simultaneously measure ionospheric characteristics and contain data relayed through the mesh to other nodes or to internet destinations.
STEMlab from Red Pitaya is a test and measurement environment that includes a board, an application marketplace and a source code library. It is designed as a low-cost alternative to many expensive measurement and control instruments. STEMlab can function as an Oscilloscope, Logic Analyser, Signal Generator, Spectrum Analyser and more, also performing other tasks like vector network analysis. It is based on high end FPGA technology, enabling software and hardware programming, coupled with very accurate high-end ADCs. Customizable at the FPGA and CPU levels, STEMlab can process real-world signals.
