Spatial and temperature resolution of sub-Y type antenna array configuration for high resolution interferometric synthetic aperture radiometer

The sub-Y type configuration of antenna array is proposed to obtain a higher angular resolution than the case of Y-type array in this paper. The sub-Y type array consists of sub-arrays that are the four elements Y-type arrays. Using sub-Y-type array, one can obtain more wide visibility function than the case of conventional Y-type array keeping the hexagonal sampling characteristic. To analyze characteristics of the proposed configuration, the synthesized angular resolution is compared to resolution of Y-type with the same number of antennas through simulation. The temperature sensitivity of sub-Y type array is considered in view of the standard deviation of sampled visibility function. The performance evaluation by use of array factor simulation shows more than 40% improvement in average for angular resolution.