A pod-based dual-beam SAR

Author

Farquharson, Gordon ; Junek, William N. ; Ramanathan, Arun ; Frasier, Stephen J. ; Tessier, Russell ; McLaughlin, David J. ; Sletten, Mark A. ; Toporkov, Jakov V.

Author_Institution

Microwave Remote Sensing Lab., Univ. of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, USA

Volume

1

Issue

2

fYear

2004

fDate

4/1/2004 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

62

Lastpage

65

Abstract

A dual-beam along-track interferometric synthetic aperture radar that is entirely self-contained within an aircraft pod has been developed by the University of Massachusetts to study sea surface processes in coastal regions. The radar operates at 5.3 GHz with a bandwidth of up to 25 MHz. System hardware is described. Initial test flights aboard the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration´s WP-3D research aircraft were performed to evaluate system performance over land and water surfaces. Imagery were collected for fore and aft squinted beams, though no interferometric data were collected. Notable look-angle dependences are observed in the sea surface normalized radar cross section under very low wind conditions.

Keywords

aircraft instrumentation; oceanographic equipment; oceanographic regions; radar cross-sections; radar imaging; remote sensing by radar; seawater; synthetic aperture radar; 25 MHz; 5.3 GHz; WP-3D research aircraft; aircraft pod; coastal regions; land surfaces; notable look-angle dependences; pod-based dual-beam SAR; radar imagery; sea surface normalized radar cross section; sea surface processes; system hardware; test flights; track interferometric synthetic aperture radar; very low wind conditions; water surfaces; Aircraft; Bandwidth; Hardware; Performance evaluation; Radar imaging; Sea measurements; Sea surface; Synthetic aperture radar interferometry; System performance; System testing;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1545-598X

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LGRS.2004.826553

Filename

1291382