Engineering topics
Chen, Curtis
Publications and source records attributed to Chen, Curtis.
The Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP): Radar Measurements at High Latitudes and of Freeze/Thaw State
The Soil Moisture Active/Passive (SMAP) mission is scheduled for a late 2014 launch date. The mission will use both active radar and passive radiometer instruments at L-Band. In order to achieve a wide swath at sufficiently high resolution for both active and passive channels, an instrument architecture that uses a large rotating reflector is employed. In this paper, a focus will be places on the radar design and associated data products at high latitudes. The radar will employ synthetic-aperture processing to achieve a "moderate" resolution dual-pol product over a 1000 km swath. Because the radar is operating continuously, very frequent temporal coverage will be achieved at high latitudes. This data will be used, among other things, to produce a surface freeze/thaw state data product.
The Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) Radar: Measurements at High Latitudes and of Surface Freeze/Thaw State
The Soil Moisture Active/Passive (SMAP) mission is scheduled for a late 2014 launch date. The mission will use both active radar and passive radiometer instruments at L-Band in order to achieve the science objectives of measuring soil moisture and land surface freeze-thaw state. To achieve requirements for a wide swath at sufficiently high resolution for both active and passive channels, an instrument architecture that uses a large rotating reflector is employed. In this paper, focus will be placed on the radar design. The radar will employ synthetic-aperture processing to achieve a "moderate" resolution dual-pol product over a 1000 km swath. Because the radar is operating continuously, very frequent temporal coverage will be achieved at high latitudes. This data will be used to produce a surface freeze/thaw state data product.
Overview and Applications of UAVSAR's Multi-Squint Polarimetric Imaging Mode
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has developed a reconfigurable polarimetric L-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR), specifically designed to acquire airborne repeat track interferometric (RTI) SAR data for application to monitoring surface deformation and vegetation structure measurements. The system employs a precision autopilot developed by NASA Dryden that allows the plane to fly precise trajectories usually within a 5 m tube. Also required for robust repeat pass applications is the ability to point the antenna in the same direction on repeat passes to a fraction of an azimuth beamwidth (8? for UAVSAR). This precise pointing is achieved using an electronically scanned antenna whose pointing is based on inertial navigation unit (INU) attitude angle data. The radar design is fully polarimetric with an 80 MHz bandwidth (2 m range resolution) and has a greater than 20 km range swath when flying at its nominal altitude of 12500 m. The ability to electronically steer the beam on a pulse-to-pulse basis has allowed a new mode of SAR data acquisition whereby the radar beam is steered to different squint angles on successive pulses thereby simultaneously generating images at multiple squint angles. This mode offers the possibility of generating vector deformation measurements with a single pair of repeat passes and to obtain greater kz diversity for vegetation studies with a reduced number of passes. This paper will present an overview of the mode, discuss its potential for deformation and vegetation, and show some examples using UAVSAR data.
Measurement and Mitigation of the Ionosphere in L-Band Interferometric SAR Data
Satellite-based repeat-pass Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) provides a synoptic high spatial resolution perspective of Earth's changing surface, permitting one to view large areas quickly and efficiently. By measuring relative phase change from one observation to the next on a pixel-by-pixel basis, maps of deformation and change can be derived. Variability of the atmosphere and the ionosphere leads to phase/time delays that are present in the data that can mask many of the subtle deformation signatures of interest, so methods for mitigation of these effects are important. Many of these effects have been observed in existing ALOS PALSAR data, and studies are underway to characterize and mitigate the ionosphere using these data. Since the ionosphere is a dispersive medium, it is possible in principle distinguish the ionospheric signatures from the non-dispersive effects of deformation and the atmosphere. In this paper, we describe a method for mapping the ionosphere in InSAR data based on a multi-frequency split-spectrum processing technique.
Under the Radar: Trials and Tribulations of Landing on Mars
The Mars Phoenix Mission requires a ground-sensing radar altimeter/ velocimeter to meet touchdown velocity requirements During Phase C/D, the radar underwent a testing triptych: a) Aerial Testing, both captive carry and tethered drop tests (36 sorties, approx. 80 hrs). b) Testing with Electronic Ground Support Equipment (EGSE) on the bench (500+ hrs). c) Detailed Simulation including both RF physics and internal firmware logic (100,000+ simulated landings). All three venues were implemented to provide sufficient uniqueness and overlap to: a) Verify the radar is meeting its requirements. b) Validate radar performance within the flight system and environment. Significant discoveries were attributed to each of the three elements of the testing triptych, leading to greatly improved EDL system robustness. An overview of the testing triptych methodology, discoveries, and responses to them will be subsequently discussed.
High-Level Performance Modeling of SAR Systems
SAUSAGE (Still Another Utility for SAR Analysis that s General and Extensible) is a computer program for modeling (see figure) the performance of synthetic- aperture radar (SAR) or interferometric synthetic-aperture radar (InSAR or IFSAR) systems. The user is assumed to be familiar with the basic principles of SAR imaging and interferometry. Given design parameters (e.g., altitude, power, and bandwidth) that characterize a radar system, the software predicts various performance metrics (e.g., signal-to-noise ratio and resolution). SAUSAGE is intended to be a general software tool for quick, high-level evaluation of radar designs; it is not meant to capture all the subtleties, nuances, and particulars of specific systems. SAUSAGE was written to facilitate the exploration of engineering tradeoffs within the multidimensional space of design parameters. Typically, this space is examined through an iterative process of adjusting the values of the design parameters and examining the effects of the adjustments on the overall performance of the system at each iteration. The software is designed to be modular and extensible to enable consideration of a variety of operating modes and antenna beam patterns, including, for example, strip-map and spotlight SAR acquisitions, polarimetry, burst modes, and squinted geometries.
System concepts and technologies for high orbit SAR
This paper discusses large aperture, high orbit radar concepts for measuring sub-centimeter-level surface displacements from space. We will explain the need for large aperture, high orbit arrays and will discuss the technologies required to achieve these missions.
Detection of small, slow ground targets using Synthetic Aperture Radar
Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) along-track interferometry (ATI) is a technique for sensing Earth-surface motion. The technique involves interferometrically combining data from two radar images acquired from phase centers separated along the platform flight track.
Concepts and Technologies for Synthetic Aperture Radar from MEO and Geosynchronous orbits
The area accessible from a spaceborne imaging radar, e.g. a synthetic aperture radar (SAR), generally increases with the elevation of the satellite while the map coverage rate is a more complicated function of platform velocity and beam agility. The coverage of a low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite is basically given by the fast ground velocity times the relatively narrow swath width. The instantaneously accessible area will be limited to some hundreds of kilometers away from the sub-satellite point. In the other extreme, the sub-satellite point of a SAR in geosynchronous orbit will move relatively slowly, while the area which can be accessed at any given time is very large, reaching thousands of kilometers from the subsatellite point. To effective1y use the accessibility provided by a high vantage point, very large antennas with electronically steered beams are required.
Modified Polar-Format Software for Processing SAR Data
HMPF is a computer program that implements a modified polar-format algorithm for processing data from spaceborne synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) systems. Unlike prior polar-format processing algorithms, this algorithm is based on the assumption that the radar signal wavefronts are spherical rather than planar. The algorithm provides for resampling of SAR pulse data from slant range to radial distance from the center of a reference sphere that is nominally the local Earth surface. Then, invoking the projection-slice theorem, the resampled pulse data are Fourier-transformed over radial distance, arranged in the wavenumber domain according to the acquisition geometry, resampled to a Cartesian grid, and inverse-Fourier-transformed. The result of this process is the focused SAR image. HMPF, and perhaps other programs that implement variants of the algorithm, may give better accuracy than do prior algorithms for processing strip-map SAR data from high altitudes and may give better phase preservation relative to prior polar-format algorithms for processing spotlight-mode SAR data.