Performance Analysis of Ku/Ka Dual-Band SAR Altimeter from an Airborne Experiment over South China Sea
Satellite radar altimeters have been successfully used for sea surface height (SSH) measurement for decades, gaining great insight in oceanography, meteorology, marine geology, etc. To further improve the observation precision and spatial resolution, radar altimeters have evolved from real aperture...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2022-05-01
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| Series: | Remote Sensing |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/14/10/2362 |
| _version_ | 1797495940029874176 |
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| author | Xiaonan Liu Weiya Kong Hanwei Sun Yaobing Lu |
| author_facet | Xiaonan Liu Weiya Kong Hanwei Sun Yaobing Lu |
| author_sort | Xiaonan Liu |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Satellite radar altimeters have been successfully used for sea surface height (SSH) measurement for decades, gaining great insight in oceanography, meteorology, marine geology, etc. To further improve the observation precision and spatial resolution, radar altimeters have evolved from real aperture to synthetic aperture, from the Ku-band to Ka-band. Future synthetic aperture radar (SAR) altimeter of the Ka-band is expected to achieve better performance than its predecessors. To verify the SAR altimeter data processing method and explore the system advantage of the Ka-band, a Ku/Ka dual-band SAR altimeter airborne experiment was carried out over South China Sea on 6 November 2021. Through dedicated hardware design, this campaign has acquired the Ku and Ka dual-band echo data simultaneously. The airborne data are processed to estimate the SSH retrieval precision after a series of procedures (including height compensation, range migration correction, multi-look processing, waveform re-tracking). To accustom to the airborne experiment design, a SAR echo model that fully considers both the attitude variation of the aircraft and the elliptical footprint of radar beam is established. The retrieved SSH data are compared with the public SSH data along the flight path at the experiment day, showing good consistence for both bands. By calculating the theoretical precision of waveform re-tracking and re-processing the dual-band airborne data into different bandwidths, it is demonstrated that the Ku/Ka precision ratio is possible to achieve 1.4 within the 27 km offshore area, which indicates that Ka-band has better performance. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T01:56:40Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-34aa0dcad44c49fbb90d02f7fb32f934 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2072-4292 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T01:56:40Z |
| publishDate | 2022-05-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Remote Sensing |
| spelling | doaj.art-34aa0dcad44c49fbb90d02f7fb32f9342023-11-23T12:54:55ZengMDPI AGRemote Sensing2072-42922022-05-011410236210.3390/rs14102362Performance Analysis of Ku/Ka Dual-Band SAR Altimeter from an Airborne Experiment over South China SeaXiaonan Liu0Weiya Kong1Hanwei Sun2Yaobing Lu3Beijing Institute of Radio Measurement, Beijing 100854, ChinaBeijing Institute of Radio Measurement, Beijing 100854, ChinaBeijing Institute of Radio Measurement, Beijing 100854, ChinaBeijing Institute of Radio Measurement, Beijing 100854, ChinaSatellite radar altimeters have been successfully used for sea surface height (SSH) measurement for decades, gaining great insight in oceanography, meteorology, marine geology, etc. To further improve the observation precision and spatial resolution, radar altimeters have evolved from real aperture to synthetic aperture, from the Ku-band to Ka-band. Future synthetic aperture radar (SAR) altimeter of the Ka-band is expected to achieve better performance than its predecessors. To verify the SAR altimeter data processing method and explore the system advantage of the Ka-band, a Ku/Ka dual-band SAR altimeter airborne experiment was carried out over South China Sea on 6 November 2021. Through dedicated hardware design, this campaign has acquired the Ku and Ka dual-band echo data simultaneously. The airborne data are processed to estimate the SSH retrieval precision after a series of procedures (including height compensation, range migration correction, multi-look processing, waveform re-tracking). To accustom to the airborne experiment design, a SAR echo model that fully considers both the attitude variation of the aircraft and the elliptical footprint of radar beam is established. The retrieved SSH data are compared with the public SSH data along the flight path at the experiment day, showing good consistence for both bands. By calculating the theoretical precision of waveform re-tracking and re-processing the dual-band airborne data into different bandwidths, it is demonstrated that the Ku/Ka precision ratio is possible to achieve 1.4 within the 27 km offshore area, which indicates that Ka-band has better performance.https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/14/10/2362Ka-bandSAR altimeterairborne experimentwaveform re-tracking |
| spellingShingle | Xiaonan Liu Weiya Kong Hanwei Sun Yaobing Lu Performance Analysis of Ku/Ka Dual-Band SAR Altimeter from an Airborne Experiment over South China Sea Remote Sensing Ka-band SAR altimeter airborne experiment waveform re-tracking |
| title | Performance Analysis of Ku/Ka Dual-Band SAR Altimeter from an Airborne Experiment over South China Sea |
| title_full | Performance Analysis of Ku/Ka Dual-Band SAR Altimeter from an Airborne Experiment over South China Sea |
| title_fullStr | Performance Analysis of Ku/Ka Dual-Band SAR Altimeter from an Airborne Experiment over South China Sea |
| title_full_unstemmed | Performance Analysis of Ku/Ka Dual-Band SAR Altimeter from an Airborne Experiment over South China Sea |
| title_short | Performance Analysis of Ku/Ka Dual-Band SAR Altimeter from an Airborne Experiment over South China Sea |
| title_sort | performance analysis of ku ka dual band sar altimeter from an airborne experiment over south china sea |
| topic | Ka-band SAR altimeter airborne experiment waveform re-tracking |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/14/10/2362 |
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