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Development of a Two Dimensional Synthetic Aperture Radiometer at L-BandA radiometer that uses aperture synthesis in two dimensions is being built as part of research under NASA's Instrument Incubator Program. The instrument development team consists of engineers at the Goddard Space Flight Center, the University of Massachusetts and Quadrant Engineering. This will be an aircraft instrument operating at L-band which builds on the heritage of Electronically Steered Thinned Array Radiometer (ESTAR). This instrument is a next step in the development of aperture synthesis (STAR technology) to meet the goal of a future mission to monitor soil moisture globally from space. The instrument will be designed to fly on the NASA P-3 aircraft in a nadir pointing mode, although other options are possible. The antenna will consist of an array of modules in a rectangular grid. Each module will be comprised of a printed circuit dual-polarized patch and integrated receiver. The distribution of modules within the rectangular array will be adjustable so that several different imaging configurations (e.g. '+', 'Y', 'T') can be employed. The integrated receiver will provide amplification and conversion to infrared (IF). The IF signal will be routed to a processor where the required correlations performed. The I and Q channels will be created digitally and the correlations will be done digitally in this processor. The digitization will be done with sufficient bits to study the effects of quantization on radiometer performance. A computer/controller will store the data for conversion to an image and will also perform temperature control and other data interfacing and housekeeping tasks. The design of critical components has been completed and hardware is being assembled to test the individual elements. It is expected that a complete two-channel correlator will be tested by the end of 2000 and that the complete instrument will be ready for flight tests the following summer (2001).
Document ID
20000118277
Acquisition Source
Goddard Space Flight Center
Document Type
Preprint (Draft being sent to journal)
Authors
LeVine, D. M.
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD United States)
Carver, K.
(Massachusetts Univ. Amherst, MA United States)
Swift, C.
(Massachusetts Univ. Amherst, MA United States)
Busalacchi, Antonio J.
Date Acquired
August 19, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 2000
Subject Category
Earth Resources And Remote Sensing
Meeting Information
Meeting: Soil Moisture Mission
Location: Las Vegas, NV
Country: United States
Start Date: September 11, 2000
End Date: September 13, 2000
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.

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