RADAR: Computer-Aided Radar Performance Evaluation Tool (CARPET)

Computer-Aided Radar Performance Evaluation Tool (CARPET)

PAGE UNDER DEVELOPMENT

After several years of development and testing, TNO made the MS DOS Computer-Aided Radar Performance Evaluation Tool (CARPET) available for use on IBM/PC ATs and compatibles in 1993. Already at that time, a menu driven user-interface was used. Worksheets were provided. CARPET 1 could generate output in Hewlett-Packard Graphics Language (HPGL) format – also known as HP printer control language.

CARPET 1 came with a set of models:

  • Multipath
  • Evaporation duct
  • Surface duct
  • Jamming
  • Sea and land clusters
  • Rain & chaff
  • Phase noise
  • Doppler processing

Some images from that time have been captured.

Computer-Aided Radar Performance Evaluation Tool (CARPET) - program start
Computer-Aided Radar Performance Evaluation Tool (CARPET) program start page (1992)

 

Blind Zone diagram generated by CARPET 1 in 1992
Blind Zone diagram generated by CARPET 1 in 1992

 

Coverage diagram generated by CARPET 1 (1992)
Coverage diagram generated by CARPET 1 (1992)

 

Received power diagram generated by CARPET 1 (1991) for "A radar"
Received power diagram generated by CARPET 1 (1991) for “A radar”

CARPET version 2

In 2003, the Microsoft Windows CARPET version 2 appeared. CARPET is presumably the most widely used radar performance assessment program.

CARPET version 3

Since the initial release date of CARPET, radar systems have evolved. Solid state RF power generation is now commonplace, like pulse compression, Doppler filtering and tracking. Modern radar systems apply multiple different waveforms per dwell: pulse lengths, RFs and PRFs stagger from pulse to pulse or from burst to burst. CARPET-users therefore requested a new release of CARPET, which became available in January 2017. CARPET 3 comes as a base version with improved functionalities such as Firm Track Probability calculations and over thirty additional diagrams including PPI-view diagrams. Its functionality can be further extended by a number of plug-ins:

  • With the ‘TERPEM Light’ plug-in, CARPET 3 has the highly advanced EM-propagation model TERPEM on board, which comes from Signal Science Ltd.
  • Users can import WMO radiosonde code and see how this affects the radar coverage.
  • They can import or construct a refractivity profile.
  • Users can position the radar in a landscape and can see what the terrain profile does to radar coverage.
  • Within the Python plug-in, CARPET 3 also comes with an editor in which users can write or import Python code, making use of CARPET functionality.
  • The ‘Multi-Burst’ and ‘Multi-scatterer target’ plug-ins allow to assess the performance of solid-state coherent radars in combination with complex targets.

For more information about the current release of CARPET, see CARPET 3 at TNO’s main website.