Microwave Remote Sensing of Ionized Air

Author

Liao, S. ; Gopalsami, N. ; Heifetz, A. ; Elmer, T. ; Fiflis, P. ; Koehl, E.R. ; Chien, H.T. ; Raptis, A.C.

Author_Institution

Argonne Nat. Lab., Argonne, IL, USA

Volume

8

Issue

4

fYear

2011

fDate

7/1/2011 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

617

Lastpage

620

Abstract

We present observations of microwave scattering from ambient room air ionized with a negative ion generator. The frequency dependence of the radar cross section of ionized air was measured from 26.5 to 40 GHz (Ka-band) in a bistatic mode with an Agilent PNA-X series (model N5245A) vector network analyzer. A detailed calibration scheme is provided to minimize the effect of the stray background field and system frequency response on the target reflection. The feasibility of detecting the microwave reflection from ionized air portends many potential applications such as remote sensing of atmospheric ionization and remote detection of radioactive ionization of air.

Keywords

atmospheric ionisation; calibration; microwave imaging; microwave reflectometry; remote sensing; Agilent PNA-X series; ambient room air; atmospheric ionization; bistatic mode; calibration scheme; ionized air; microwave reflection; microwave remote sensing; microwave scattering; negative ion generator; radar cross section; radioactive ionization; remote detection; stray background field; system frequency response; vector network analyzer; Calibration; Frequency measurement; Ionization; Microwave measurements; Radar cross section; Remote sensing; Scattering; Electromagnetic reflection; electromagnetic scattering; radar cross section (RCS); radar scattering;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1545-598X

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LGRS.2010.2098016

Filename

5692809