Development of the new Jicamarca Acquisition Radar System: JARS

Abstract

The need for high-precision radar measurements of the upper atmosphere has motivated the development of new acquisition systems at the Jicamarca Radio Observatory (JRO). Digital receivers have replaced the old analog receivers, providing higher dynamic range, faster sampling rates, and more flexibility in configuration. At JRO, off-the-shelf Digitals Receivers (Echotek GC214) are used, but they are not as flexible as we need, so we decided to develop our own digital receiver system. The first prototype we built was a two-channel data acquisition system (REX-2X). The system was finished in 2008 and it has been used to modernize the SOUSY radar at Jicamarca. In 2009, after the experience gained from REX-2X, a new project was started. An eight-channel acquisition system named JARS (Jicamarca Acquisition Radar System) was designed.