Abstract

The Global L-band Observatory for Water Cycle Studies (GLOWS) is designed as a follow-on to the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) observatory launched in 2015. While GLOWS is essentially copying many aspects of the SMAP mission, a key change has been made in the antenna technology. SMAP uses a reflector antenna and to reduce mission costs GLOWS uses a metamaterial lens antenna. This type of antenna is less efficient, so it must be proven that GLOWS can achieve the same uncertainty levels in soil moisture measurements as SMAP. In this work, a unified framework for modeling and analyzing GLOWS' ability to meet all mission and measurement requirements is developed. A model for the uncertainty effects of the lens antenna is developed and used to show that so long as the lens efficiency is above a threshold determined by the accuracy of the lens physical temperature knowledge, GLOWS will also be able to achieve all measurement requirements. It is shown that GLOWS is able to copy the design parameters of SMAP and achieve the same mission requirements.

Degree

College and Department

Ira A. Fulton College of Engineering and Technology; Electrical and Computer Engineering

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