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Pioneer Venus Orbiter Radar Mapper - Design and operationThe Radar Mapper Experiment, carried aboard the Pioneer Venus Orbiter spacecraft, is designed to obtain a near-global picture of the topography, meter-scale surface slopes and reflectivity of Venus. Constraints imposed by the choice of orbit limit radar coverage to a latitude band lying between 74 deg N and 61 deg S completely around the planet. In addition to the altimetry objectives, the experiment seeks an image of the radar scattering properties of the surface at oblique incidence. Sensitivity limits the imaged region to a band around the planet lying between 45 deg N and 10 deg S. Altimetric error is less than 200 m; altimetric surface 'footprint' size varies from about 10 km in diameter at a spacecraft altitude of 200 km, to 50 km at a maximum altitude of 4700 km. Imaging varies from 20 to 40 km, depending on spacecraft altitude.
Document ID
19800046663
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
Authors
Pettengill, G. H.
(MIT Cambridge, Mass., United States)
Horwood, D. F.
(Hughes Aircraft Co. El Segundo, Calif., United States)
Keller, C. H.
(NASA Ames Research Center Moffett Field, Calif., United States)
Date Acquired
August 10, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 1980
Publication Information
Publication: IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing
Volume: GE-18
Subject Category
Spacecraft Instrumentation
Accession Number
80A30833
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other

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