The ERS-1 altimeter experience in the ENVISAT-1 RA-2 design

Author

Francis, R.C. ; Levrini, G.A.

Author_Institution

ESA/ESTEC, Noordwijk, Netherlands

Volume

3

fYear

34881

fDate

10-14 Jul1995

Firstpage

1803

Abstract

RA-2 has been designed and is under development by Alenia Spazio as instrument prime contractor for the European Space Agency (ESA). The main mission requirement for RA-2 is constituted by global coverage over all surface types. Its operation is no more restricted to the open ocean and ice covered regions as per ERS-1 and ERS-2, and other previous altimeters. This implied a radical different design approach, mainly in the areas of: acquisition, on board tracking algorithm, operation concept

Keywords

geophysical equipment; geophysical techniques; oceanographic equipment; oceanographic techniques; radar equipment; remote sensing by radar; spaceborne radar; Alenia Spazio; ENVISAT-1; ERS-1 altimeter experience; ESA; RA-2; design; equipment instrument; geophysical measurement technique; global coverage; land surface; ocean; radar altimetry; radar remote sensing; radioaltimetry; sea surface; terrain mapping; Calibration; Instruments; Ocean temperature; Performance evaluation; Pulse modulation; Radar tracking; Sea measurements; Sea surface; Surface topography; Uncertainty;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, 1995. IGARSS '95. 'Quantitative Remote Sensing for Science and Applications', International

Conference_Location

Firenze

Print_ISBN

0-7803-2567-2

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IGARSS.1995.524031

Filename

524031