Passive IRIS Overview

For most installations, IRIS actively controls the radar and antenna through the RVP processor and the RCP.

For some installations, the radar and antenna are controlled by an external RCP and IRIS is connected to the radar by the signal processor. In this case, the external control system performs the scanning and IRIS listens to the signal processor in passive mode.

In passive mode, the radar tasks in IRIS are configured to match the scanning performed by the external control system and IRIS synchronizes to the external scanning. That is, IRIS deduces which TASK should be running, starts the TASK, and acquires the TASK data from the signal processor.

Passive IRIS requires that antenna angle information be supplied to the RVP.

Use Cases For Passive IRIS

• If IRIS is installed in parallel with an existing data acquisition system. The existing system does its own thing and IRIS follows.
• If 2 radars at different frequencies (and correspondingly 2 IRIS's) share the same antenna. In this case, one of the IRIS systems can operate in active mode and the other operate in passive mode to allow simultaneous data collection from both radars. Another application is when using time series playback.