RFI Characterization and Mitigation for the SMAP Radar

Author

Spencer, Michael W. ; Chen, Chang Wen ; Ghaemi, Hirad ; Chan, Samuel F. ; Belz, John E.

Author_Institution

Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Technol., Pasadena, CA, USA

Volume

51

Issue

10

fYear

2013

fDate

Oct. 2013

Firstpage

4973

Lastpage

4982

Abstract

The Soil Moisture Active-Passive (SMAP) mission will launch in late 2014 and will carry a combined L-band radiometer/radar instrument for the retrieval of global soil moisture and surface freeze-thaw state. Radio frequency interference (RFI) is a known challenge for Earth remote sensing in the L-band portion of the spectrum. This paper addresses efforts to characterize and mitigate RFI for the SMAP radar. A model for the RFI environment due to surface-based emitters is developed, and is shown to agree well with the observations of currently operating L-band radar systems. An analysis of the environment due to space-based emitters is also presented. Techniques to mitigate RFI in the radar band are described, and are shown to perform sufficiently well to meet the stringent SMAP measurement requirements. A companion paper addresses the different issues encountered with RFI in the radiometer band.

Keywords

hydrological equipment; moisture; radar interference; remote sensing by radar; soil; spaceborne radar; Earth remote sensing; L-band spectrum; RFI characterization; RFI mitigation; SMAP radar; radar instrument; radio frequency interference; soil moisture active-passive mission; surface-based emitters; Extraterrestrial measurements; L-band; Radar antennas; Radar measurements; Radar remote sensing; Spaceborne radar; Earth remote sensing; L-band radar systems; Soil Moisture Active–Passive (SMAP) mission; radio frequency interference (RFI);

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Geoscience and Remote Sensing, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0196-2892

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TGRS.2013.2253472

Filename

6521368