Calibration and Estimation of Attitude Errors for a Rotating Fan-Beam Scatterometer Using Calibration Ground Stations

Author

Jintai Zhu ; Xiaolong Dong ; Wenming Lin ; Xingou Xu

Author_Institution

Key Lab. of Microwave Remote Sensing, Nat. Space Sci. Center, Beijing, China

Volume

8

Issue

1

fYear

2015

fDate

Jan. 2015

Firstpage

171

Lastpage

179

Abstract

The rotating fan-beam scatterometer (RFSCAT) onboard Chinese-French Oceanic SATellite (CFOSAT) due to launch in 2018 is a new type of radar scatterometer system for ocean surface wind vector measurement. It can give observations with more azimuth and incidence angles for a single wind vector cell (WVC) than other available scatterometers. This has been proved effective in bettering the retrieved wind quality by the simulation approach. However, its innovative observing geometry is challenging for the coming in-orbit external calibration. In this paper, CFOSAT attitude errors are estimated, and its antenna gain pattern is monitored and verified based on the external calibration strategy of a Ku-band scatterometer employing calibration ground stations (CGSs). The effects of satellite attitude errors on the measurements are also analyzed, together with simulation results for the external calibration. It is shown that a gain pattern with accuracy of 0.08 dB and attitude errors within 0.025° are achieved.

Keywords

antenna radiation patterns; attitude measurement; calibration; geophysical techniques; remote sensing; CFOSAT attitude error estimation; Chinese-French Oceanic Satellite; Ku-band scatterometer; antenna gain pattern; calibration ground stations; rotating fan-beam scatterometer; single wind vector cell; Antenna measurements; Calibration; Gain; Radar measurements; Satellite antennas; Satellites; Spaceborne radar; Attitude errors; calibration; calibration ground station (CGS); rotating fan-beam scatterometer (RFSCAT);

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1939-1404

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/JSTARS.2014.2323993

Filename

6823073