The United States faces a challenge in monitoring the vast and remote Arctic region for low-flying aircraft and ships.
Since World War II, the northern approaches to North America have been a security focus, leading to the creation of radar systems like the North Warning System. However, these current microwave radars are limited by the Earth's horizon and cannot effectively detect vehicles at low altitudes.
As the Arctic becomes more accessible for shipping and other activities, the need for a reliable, long-range sensing method that can overcome these limitations has become critical for national security.
To address this issue, DARPA has initiated the Frosty program, which aims to develop new radar technologies that can operate reliably in the harsh Arctic environment. The concept is to use over-the-horizon sensing methods. The primary obstacle is the region's turbulent ionosphere, the upper layer of the atmosphere, which is disturbed by solar wind and severely distorts radio signals.
The Frosty program will pioneer innovative signal processing techniques to use these distorted signals, and even the ambient background noise of the environment, to create a functional radar system capable of seeing over the horizon
The ultimate goal of the Frosty program is to develop the complex algorithms and processing flow required to turn scrambled radio waves into a clear picture for detecting and tracking targets. DARPA seeks creative solutions and proposals from a wide range of sources, including large and small businesses and non-traditional defense contractors.
The plan is to develop and test these new methods to create a dependable sensing capability that will enhance situational awareness across the northern latitudes.