NASA Logo

NTRS

NTRS - NASA Technical Reports Server

Back to Results
A Cloud and Precipitation Radar System Concept for the ACE MissionOne of the instruments recommended for deployment on the Aerosol/Cloud/Ecosystems (ACE) mission is a new advanced cloud profiling radar. In this paper, we describe such a radar design, called ACERAD, which has 35- and 94-GHz channels, each having Doppler and dual-polarization capabilities. ACERAD will scan at Ka-band and will be nadir-looking at W-band. To get a swath of 25-30 km, considered the minimum useful for Ka-band, ACERAD needs to scan at least 2 degrees off nadir; this is at least 20 beamwidths, which is quite large for a typical parabolic reflector. This problem is being solved with a Dragonian design; a scaled prototype of the antenna is being fabricated and will be tested on an antenna range. ACERAD also uses a quasi-optical transmission line at W-band to connect the transmitter to the antenna and antenna to the receiver. A design for this has been completed and is being laboratory tested. This paper describes the current ACERAD design and status.
Document ID
20120013140
Acquisition Source
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Document Type
Conference Paper
External Source(s)
Authors
Durden, S. L.
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Tanelli, S.
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Epp, L.
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Jamnejad, V.
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Perez, R.
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Prata, A.
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Samoska, L.
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Long, E
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Fang, H.
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Esteban-Fernandez, D.
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Lee, C.
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Date Acquired
August 26, 2013
Publication Date
July 25, 2011
Subject Category
Spacecraft Instrumentation And Astrionics
Meeting Information
Meeting: IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society (IGRSS)
Location: Vancouver
Country: Canada
Start Date: July 24, 2011
End Date: July 29, 2011
Sponsors: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other
Keywords
CloudSat Mission
cloud profiling
W-band

Available Downloads

There are no available downloads for this record.
No Preview Available