Keywords

atmospheric techniques, meteorological radar, radar cross-sections, radar theory, remote sensing by radar, spaceborne radar, wind

Abstract

Scatterometers are remote sensing radars designed to measure near-surface winds over the ocean. The difficulties of accommodating traditional fan-beam scatterometers on spacecraft has lead to the development of a scanning pencil-beam instrument known as SeaWinds. SeaWinds will be part of the Japanese Advanced Earth Observing Satellite II (ADEOS-II) to be launched in 1999. To analyze the performance of the SeaWinds design, a new expression for the measurement accuracy of a pencil-beam system is required. In this paper the authors derive a general expression for the backscatter measurement accuracy for a pencil-beam scatterometer which includes the effects of transmit signal modulation with simple power detection. Both separate and simultaneous signal+noise and noise-only measurements are considered. The utility of the new expression for scatterometer design tradeoffs is demonstrated using a simplified geometry. A separate paper, ibid., 1997, describes detailed tradeoffs made to develop the SeaWinds design.

Original Publication Citation

Long, D. G., and M. W. Spencer. "Radar Backscatter Measurement Accuracy for a Spaceborne Pencil-Beam Wind Scatterometer with Transmit Modulation." Geoscience and Remote Sensing, IEEE Transactions on 35.1 (1997): 12-14

Document Type

Peer-Reviewed Article

Publication Date

1997-01-01

Permanent URL

http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/1096

Publisher

IEEE

Language

English

College

Ira A. Fulton College of Engineering and Technology

Department

Electrical and Computer Engineering

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