A 94 GHz spaceborne cloud profiling radar antenna system

Author

Spitz, Suzanne ; Prata, Aluizio, Jr. ; Harrell, Jefferson ; Perez, Raul ; Veruttipong, Watt

Author_Institution

Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Technol., Pasadena, CA, USA

Volume

2

fYear

2001

fDate

2001

Abstract

The CloudSat spacecraft, scheduled to launch in 2003, will carry a 94 GHz cloud profiling radar. The electrical design of its antenna system has been completed and is presented here. It consists of a quasi-optical transmission line that performs signal relaying and duplexing (using a Faraday rotator), and a collimating antenna that provides the required gain and spatial resolution. A shaped open Cassegrain collimating antenna is used because of its clear aperture, which allows for accurate electrical modeling, good performance, and significant reduction in implementation time and cost. The complete antenna system (horns to free space) has a worst case predicted gain of 63.1 dBi (59% efficiency) and exceeds the sidelobe envelope requirement of 50 dB below the peak gain at angles from boresight greater than 7 degrees

Keywords

clouds; millimetre wave measurement; radar antennas; reflector antennas; remote sensing by radar; 59 percent; 94 GHz; CloudSat spacecraft; Faraday rotator; boresight; cloud profiling; duplexing; electrical design; electrical modeling; implementation time; peak gain; quasi-optical transmission line; radar antenna system; shaped open Cassegrain collimating antenna; sidelobe envelope requirement; signal relaying; worst case predicted gain; Aperture antennas; Clouds; Collimators; Performance gain; Radar antennas; Relays; Space vehicles; Spaceborne radar; Spatial resolution; Transmission line antennas;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Aerospace Conference, 2001, IEEE Proceedings.

Conference_Location

Big Sky, MT

Print_ISBN

0-7803-6599-2

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/AERO.2001.931248

Filename

931248