Tradeoffs in the design of a spaceborne scanning pencil beam scatterometer: application to SeaWinds

Author

Spencer, Michael W. ; Wu, Chialin ; Long, David G.

Author_Institution

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

Volume

35

Issue

1

fYear

1997

fDate

1/1/1997 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

115

Lastpage

126

Abstract

SeaWinds is a spaceborne wind scatterometer to be flown on the second Japanese Advanced Earth Observing Satellite (ADEOS-II) in 1999. An important international element of NASA´s Earth Observing System (EOS), SeaWinds is an advanced follow-on to the NASA scatterometer (NSCAT) on the first ADEOS platform. Unlike previous operational spaceborne scatterometer systems. SeaWinds employs a scanning “pencil-beam” antenna rather than a “fan-beam” antenna, making the instrument more compact and yielding greater ocean coverage. The goals of this paper are twofold. First, the overall SeaWinds functional design and backscatter measurement approach are described, and the relative advantages of the pencil-beam technique are outlined. Second, the unique aspects of measurement accuracy optimization and signal processing for the SeaWinds instrument are discussed. Applying the results of a separate companion paper, ibid., 1997, a technique to significantly improve measurement accuracy by modulating the transmit pulse is described. Trade-offs to optimize the transmit modulation bandwidth are presented

Keywords

atmospheric measuring apparatus; atmospheric techniques; meteorological instruments; meteorological radar; remote sensing by radar; spaceborne radar; wind; ADEOS-II; Advanced Earth Observing Satellite; SeaWinds; accuracy; functional design; instrument apparatus; marine atmosphere; measurement technique; meteorological radar; radar remote sensing; satellite remote sensing; scatterometry; signal processing; spaceborne radar; spaceborne scanning pencil beam scatterometer; transmit pulse modulation; wind; Antenna measurements; Earth Observing System; Instruments; NASA; Pulse measurements; Pulse modulation; Radar measurements; Satellites; Sea measurements; Spaceborne radar;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Geoscience and Remote Sensing, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0196-2892

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/36.551940

Filename

551940