Active/passive microwave system with deployable mesh antenna for spaceborne ocean salinity measurements

A concept has been studied for remote sensing of sea surface salinity from space using a large deployable mesh antenna system. The antenna has a 6-m-diameter offset-fed parabolic reflector with multichannel feedhorns and radiometers and a radar, operating at L- and S-bands. The entire system rotates about the nadir axis, providing a conical scan across a 900 km wide swath at a spatial resolution of about 40 km from a 600-km orbit altitude. The study includes evaluation of deployable mesh antennas and preferred antenna, spacecraft, and launch vehicle configurations. Designs for compact, lightweight feedhorns and radiometer/radar electronics were also developed