Calibration of a SuperDARN radar antenna by means of a satellite beacon on a CubeSat

Author

Cilliers, P.J. ; Agaba, D. ; Inggs, Michael ; van Zyl, R.

fYear

2013

fDate

21-26 July 2013

Firstpage

1290

Lastpage

1293

Abstract

This paper presents the context and potential outcomes of the HF Beacon payload on the ZACUBE-1 CubeSat jointly developed by the Satellite Engineering Program of F´SATI at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) in Bellville and the Space Science Directorate of the South African National Space Agency (SANSA Space Science) in Hermanus. The primary objective of the HF Beacon on ZACUBE-1 is to provide a continuous radio signal to determine the elevation resolving algorithm of the SuperDARN HF Radar antenna at SANAE in Antarctica. The signal will also be used to characterize the beam pattern of this and other HF Radar antennas in the SuperDARN network, and to characterize the ionosphere over the polar regions.

Keywords

HF antennas; antenna arrays; calibration; ionospheric techniques; remote sensing by radar; HF Beacon payload; SuperDARN HF radar antenna; ZACUBE-1 CubeSat; beam pattern; calibration; elevation resolving algorithm; ionosphere; polar regions; radio signal; super dual auroral radar network; Arrays; Ionosphere; Radar antennas; Satellite broadcasting; Satellites; Spaceborne radar; HF Beacon; SuperDARN radar; polar ionosphere;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS), 2013 IEEE International

Conference_Location

Melbourne, VIC

ISSN

2153-6996

Print_ISBN

978-1-4799-1114-1

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IGARSS.2013.6723017

Filename

6723017