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Impact of Ionospheric Scintillation on Spaceborne SAR Observations Studied Using GNSSA survey of artifacts seen in JAXA's Phase Array type L-band synthetic aperture radar (PALSAR) data over South America during a low solar activity year is reported in this paper. A significant impact on the radar data is revealed: about 14% of the surveyed PALSAR images (totally 2779) are affected by the artifacts during a month and the artifacts occur on 74.2% of the surveyed days. The characteristics of the artifacts have led to a consideration that the artifacts are the effects of ionospheric scintillation. This raises not only a concern about scintillation effects on radar but also a question about active scintillation conditions during a low solar activity year. To assess and verify the scintillation conditions, GPS data collected from the constellation of FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC satellites and three ground-based GPS networks are processed and analyzed. The GPS data provides a global context and regional dense converge, respectively, of ionospheric irregularity and scintillation measurements. It is concluded tat even during a low solar activity year, L-band scintillation at low latitudes can occur frequently and affect L-band SAR significantly.
Document ID
20150004661
Acquisition Source
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Document Type
Conference Paper
External Source(s)
Authors
Pi, Xiaoqing
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Meyer, Franz J.
(Geophysical Inst. U A F Fairbanks, AK, United States)
Chotoo, Kancham
(User Systems, Inc. Gambrills, MD, United States)
Freeman, Anthony
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Caton, Ronald G.
(Air Force Research Lab. Kirtland AFB, NM, United States)
Bridgewood, Christopher T.
(Boston Coll. Boston, MA, United States)
Date Acquired
April 8, 2015
Publication Date
September 20, 2012
Subject Category
Earth Resources And Remote Sensing
Geophysics
Meeting Information
Meeting: International Technical Meeting of The Satellite Division of the Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS 2012)
Location: Nashville, TN
Country: United States
Start Date: September 17, 2012
End Date: September 21, 2012
Sponsors: Institute of Navigation
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other
Keywords
remote sensing
September 18-21, 2012
L-band spaceborne radars

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