Optics Communications 472 (2020) 125891 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Optics Communications journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/optcom Range detection assessment of photonic radar under adverse weather perceptions ✩ Vishal Sharma ∗ , Sergey Sergeyev Aston Institute of Photonic Technologies (AiPT), School of Engineering and Applied Science, Aston University, Birmingham, UK ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Photonic radar Coherent detection Non-coherent detection Weather conditions ABSTRACT The photonic radar is attaining its popularity significantly for the last few years due to its potential to offer wide bandwidth to achieve an extended target-range with high range- and image-resolution [8-10]. On the other hand, the state-of-the-art microwave radar is incapable to meet these essential requirements of the self- driving vehicles due to its limited bandwidth. Moreover, to work at higher microwave-frequencies to attain high bandwidth, the microwave radar’s performance is affected by atmospheric fluctuations that result in short target-range. So, it becomes imperative to demonstrate and investigate a photonic radar that has the potential to achieve a prolonged target-range in harsh environment perceptions. Subsequently, the authors develop a model of linear frequency-modulated photonic radar to capture the reflected echoes with high power sufficient for target-detection with high accuracy using two simulation software, i.e. Matlab TM and Optisys TM . Further, the demonstrated photonic radar is developed and carried out under the influence of weak-to-strong atmospheric regimes. Our work determines how the weak-to-strong states of atmospheric fluctuations affect the demonstrated photonic radar and which detection strategy, either coherent or non-coherent, should be adopted to attain a prolonged target-range in the presence of harsh weather conditions. The results show better signal-to-noise ratio with high power of reflected echoes to achieve an extended target-range and are aligned in the acceptable ranges. 1. Introduction The photonic radar has established its applications in diversified areas, for instance, intelligent autonomous transport systems, wireless local-positioning systems (WLPS), terrain detectors, space applications, remote sensing areas, military surveillance, landscape ecology, flood monitoring, under-water level fluctuations and above-ground biomass assessments [1–4]. The availability of mature surveillance and navi- gation systems like Global Positioning System (GPS) and differential GPS are restricted to a marginal accuracy-range and deliver unreli- able performance in urban areas that makes them inappropriate for Autonomous Vehicle (AV) like applications [5,6]. Today’s AV industry demands high imagery-resolution radar systems to track and detect the moving or static objects with high precision even in the presence of harsh environmental fluctuations. The advanced autonomous vehicles are equipped with various driver assistance systems, microwave radar systems, 3D cameras, hardware- and software-driven signal processing units, and GPS devices, however, are limited to offer visibility-range to few meters only at a high cost. Moreover, the autonomous driving ✩ This work is carried out in Aston Institute of Photonic Technologies, School of Applied Sciences and Engineering, Aston University, Birmingham, UK and is supported by European Union-sponsored H2020-MSCA-IF-EF-ST project no: 840267. ∗ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: v.vishal@aston.ac.uk (V. Sharma), s.sergeyev@aston.ac.uk (S. Sergeyev). entails high-security necessities for redundant and mutual confirma- tory measurements. But, it becomes challenging to attain accurate measurements under the severe atmospheric fluctuations. As the ut- most of the autonomous driving-functions depends on the equipped radar system, the radar must be capable of providing accurate range- detection and range-visibility between 100–400 m with high image- resolution. Also, the input power requirements should not exceed 20 W due to limited-power available in car-generators [7]. Looking at the autonomous driving functions, the importance of an automotive photonic radar upturn significantly and is growing rapidly at its initial phases. Unlike microwave radars, the photonics radar provides high imagery-resolution and better range-resolution with high accuracy [8– 10]. Usually, an average power continuous wave (CW) light source with a relatively long-observation period is used to develop a photonic radar with acceptable range-accuracy and image-resolution [11–13]. Also, a triangular modulation function with frequency-modulated RF signals is utilized to compute the target-range and target-velocity [14]. Moreover, the frequency-modulated photonic radars are employed in a non-coherent configuration which is sensitive to the intensity of the received RF signal at the cost of short range-detection. The other https://doi.org/10.1016/j.optcom.2020.125891 Received 20 February 2020; Received in revised form 12 March 2020; Accepted 4 April 2020 Available online 10 April 2020 0030-4018/© 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.