Dual-band polarimetric coherent atmospheric transmission experiment for precipitation observation

This paper presents the system design of a polarization agile coherent 35 GHz and 22.235 GHz atmospheric transmission experiment. A folded monostatic configuration using a 70 cm trihedral reflector is chosen to reduce the complexity and expenses of a coherent architecture. The system uses a pulsed transmitter and receiver stage to range gate and discriminate between unwanted early backscatter and the transmission component. Its sampling rate of 25 kHz will allow for first studies and correlation analysis of precipitation caused statistical fluctuations in both amplitude and phase for two frequencies and polarizations simultaneously. Several hydrological and meteorological measurements taken at the same site will support the analysis of the measured data.