A study was conducted at the NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) to determine the feasibility of developing a microwave radiometer system using inflatable reflector antenna technology to obtain high spatial resolution radiometric measurements of soil moisture from low Earth orbit and which could be used with a small and cost effective launch vehicle. The required high resolution with reasonable swath width coupled with the L-band measurement frequency for soil moisture dictated the use of a large (30 meter class) real aperture antenna in conjunction with a pushbroom antenna beam configuration and noise-injection type radiometer designs at 1.4 and 4.3 GHz to produce a 370 kilometer cross-track swath with a 10 kilometer resolution that could be packaged for launch with a Titan 2 class vehicle. This study includes design of the inflatable structure, control analysis, structural and thermal analysis, antenna and feed design, radiometer design, payload packaging, orbital analysis, and electromagnetic losses in the thin membrane inflatable materials.


    Zugriff

    Zugriff über TIB

    Verfügbarkeit in meiner Bibliothek prüfen


    Exportieren, teilen und zitieren



    Titel :

    Inflatable Antenna Microwave Radiometer for Soil Moisture Measurement


    Beteiligte:
    M. C. Bailey (Autor:in) / B. M. Kendall (Autor:in) / L. C. Schroeder (Autor:in) / R. F. Harrington (Autor:in)

    Erscheinungsdatum :

    1993


    Format / Umfang :

    4 pages


    Medientyp :

    Report


    Format :

    Keine Angabe


    Sprache :

    Englisch