A Potential Radar Network Working in the 500MHz Band and Its Applications

In the Qujing city of the Yunnan province, China, an incoherent scatter radar working in the 500MHz band has been built to conduct research on the ionosphere.This ground-based radar can boost the development of radar astronomy in China.By taking advantage of the powerful transmitter of this radar and existing large radio telescopes in China, it is possible to construct a multi-station radar network optimized for detecting space debris and Near Earth Objects (NEOs).The radio telescopes are to receive radio-wave echoes from space debris or NEOs, with the echoed waves originally emitted by the radar in Qujing.The radio telescopes include the Kunming 40m, Miyun 50m, and Guizhou FAST (500m) telescopes.In this paper we give the result of a preliminary detection of space debris using the radar and briefly describe the potential capabilities of the proposed radar network in monitoring the space environment.We call for a wide range of studies of solar-system objects using Chinese ground-based radars and the VLBI method, which should enhance Chinese deep-space exploration capability and open new frontiers in space science.