HY-2A Radar Altimeter Ultrastable Oscillator Drift Estimation Using Reconstructive Transponder With Its Validation By Multimission Cross Calibration

This paper presents a method estimating the HY-2A altimeter ultrastable oscillator (USO) drift with a reconstructive transponder. The frequency of the USO of the in-orbit altimeter changes with age, and a bias between the actual frequency and the nominal one exists. The USO bias contributes a portion of the altimeter range drift. The HY-2A altimeter transmits signals at a fixed time interval during calibration, and the actual interval between adjacent altimeter transitions, which is controlled by the USO, is different from the nominal one due to the USO drift. The reconstructive transponder measures the arrival times of the altimeter transmitted signals accurately with the atomic clock. The drift of the USO on board the HY-2A altimeter can be estimated accurately by using the ranges from the reconstructive transponder and the HY-2A altimeter. The USO drifts of around 40 cm/year are presented. Furthermore, the multimission cross calibration provides preliminary validation of the HY-2A altimeter USO drift.