Technology Demonstration of Ka-band Digitally-Beam formed Radar for Ice Topography Mapping

Sadowy, G.; Heavey, Brandon; Möller, D.; Rignot, Eric; Zawadzki, M.; Rengarajan, S.R.

doi:10.1109/aero.2007.353074

Cited by 9 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…Millimetre-wave radars operate in the frequency range of 30-300 GHz (wavelengths of 1 mm to 1 cm) (Currie and Brown, 1987), although most remote-sensing studies are carried out in the low absorption 'atmospheric windows' near 35 GHz (Ka-band) and 94 GHz (W-band). While a handful of studies have mapped glacier and snow surfaces between 27 and 40 GHz (Ka-band) (Sadowy and others, 2007;Moller and others, 2011), there are no studies that have used 94 GHz (W-band) for this purpose despite the potential advantages of using higher frequency radar systems for close-range sensing of cryospheric terrain.…”

Section: Ghz Radar For Glacier Monitoringmentioning

confidence: 99%

Glacier monitoring using real-aperture 94 GHz radar

et al. 2022

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Close-range sensors are employed to observe glaciological processes that operate over short timescales (e.g. iceberg calving, glacial lake outburst floods, diurnal surface melting). However, under poor weather conditions optical instruments fail while the operation of radar systems below 17 GHz do not have sufficient angular resolution to map glacier surfaces in detail. This letter reviews the potential of millimetre-wave radar at 94 GHz to obtain high-resolution 3-D measurements of glaciers under most weather conditions. We discuss the theory of 94 GHz radar for glaciology studies, demonstrate its potential to map a glacier calving front and summarise future research priorities.

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Section: Ghz Radar For Glacier Monitoringmentioning

confidence: 99%

Glacier monitoring using real-aperture 94 GHz radar

et al. 2022

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“…With different combinations of forward and reverse biased PIN diodes, the beamforming can be achieved. Compared with the ESPAR antenna described in [9], which uses six parasitic elements and six PIN diodes and which can form 2 6 = 64 patterns, the ESPAR antenna described here uses 12 parasitic elements and 12 PIN diodes and can form 2 12 = 4096 patterns. Therefore by controlling the DC voltages supplied to the PIN diodes, the beamforming can be performed.…”

Section: Antenna Design and Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…By steering its main beam towards a desired signal while forming a null in the direction of an interference signal, an intelligent antenna can increase the wireless channel capacity and improve the communication quality. An intelligent antenna can be formed by an analogue beamforming array [1][2][3][4] or a digital beamforming (DBF) array [5][6][7]. These conventional intelligent antennas are bulky, expensive and have high-power consumption.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Low‐cost intelligent antenna with low profile and broad bandwidth

Liu

Gao

Loh

et al. 2013

IET Microwaves, Antennas & Propagation

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In this study, a low‐cost intelligent antenna, which has a low profile, high gain and broad bandwidth, is presented. The proposed antenna is an extension of the conventional electronically steerable parasitic array radiator antenna. It consists of one short monopole and 12‐folded monopoles. The short monopole is placed in the centre and serves as the driven element and the 12‐folded monopoles serve as parasitic elements. The coupling between the driven and parasitic elements provides capacitive loading to the driven element, leading to a low‐profile antenna. The use of 12 PIN diodes enables beamforming to be performed using a transistor–transistor logic supply. The front‐to‐back‐ratio (FBR) is improved by introducing a reconfigurable choke ring surrounding the antenna. To validate the concept, a prototype at S band is developed. Both measured and simulated results are presented. The antenna has a height of only 24 mm (0.16 λ at 2.0 GHz) and a broadband bandwidth from 2.0 to 2.5 GHz. Finally, the antenna is employed in a wireless communication system in a multi‐path environment and large noise environment. It is shown that the antenna can boost the throughput of a wireless system significantly in both environments.

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“…With the introduction of its successor DBSAR-2, it has been recently been upgraded to 16 channels and higher spatial resolution [9]. SweepSAR is another airborne digital beamforming SAR demonstrator of NASA [10]. It is a reflector-based 16-channel Ka-band system foreseen to simulate L-band spaceborne scenarios, such as NISAR [11] and Tandem-L [12], with a main focus on ice and solid earth topography.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The High-Resolution Digital-Beamforming Airborne SAR System DBFSAR

et al. 2020

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Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is an established remote sensing technique that can robustly provide high-resolution imagery of the Earth’s surface. However, current space-borne SAR systems are limited, as a matter of principle, in achieving high azimuth resolution and a large swath width at the same time. Digital beamforming (DBF) has been identified as a key technology for resolving this limitation and provides various other advantages, such as an improved signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) or the adaptive suppression of radio interference (RFI). Airborne SAR sensors with digital beamforming capabilities are essential tools to research and validate this important technology for later implementation on a satellite. Currently, the Microwaves and Radar Institute of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) is developing a new advanced high-resolution airborne SAR system with digital beamforming capabilities, the so-called DBFSAR, which is planned to supplement its operational F-SAR system in near future. It is operating at X-band and features 12 simultaneous receive and 4 sequential transmit channels with 1.8 GHz bandwidth each, flexible DBF antenna setups and is equipped with a high-precision navigation and positioning unit. This paper aims to present the DBFSAR sensor development, including its radar front-end, its digital back-end, the foreseen DBF antenna configuration and the intended calibration strategy. To analyse the status, performance, and calibration quality of the DBFSAR system, this paper also includes some first in-flight results in interferometric and multi-channel marine configurations. They demonstrate the excellent performance of the DBFSAR system during its first flight campaigns.

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Technology Demonstration of Ka-band Digitally-Beam formed Radar for Ice Topography Mapping

Cited by 9 publications

References 4 publications

Glacier monitoring using real-aperture 94 GHz radar

Glacier monitoring using real-aperture 94 GHz radar

Low‐cost intelligent antenna with low profile and broad bandwidth

The High-Resolution Digital-Beamforming Airborne SAR System DBFSAR

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