Design of a quasi optical transmission line for Cloud and precipitation radar system of ACE mission

Author

Jamnejad, Vahraz ; Long, Ezra ; Durden, Stephen

Author_Institution

Jet Propulsion Lab., Pasadena, CA, USA

fYear

2015

fDate

7-14 March 2015

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

6

Abstract

We outline the design and test of a new quasi-optical transmission line (QOTL) for feeding the reflector system in an optional instrument for deployment on the Aerosol/Cloud/Ecosystems (ACE) mission. The QOTL used to connect the transmitter and receiver to the antenna is designed for operation at W-band (94 GHz) frequency. A test-bed has been developed for the various critical components of the radar system. The challenge in using quasi-optics for ACERAD is that it must accommodate dual-polarized operation. We have developed a way to accomplish this that extends the design implemented in CloudSat radar jointly developed by JPL/NASA, Canadian Space Agency and other agencies. The new design has been prototyped using various components on a laboratory optical bench. Critical components of the QOTL have been fabricated and tested. Some results are presented.

Keywords

meteorological radar; millimetre wave antennas; millimetre wave radar; optical communication; optical elements; optical receivers; optical transmitters; ACE Mission; ACERAD; Canadian Space Agency; CloudSat radar; JPL; NASA; QOTL; aerosol-cloud-ecosystems mission; cloud radar system; dual-polarized operation; laboratory optical bench; precipitation radar system; quasi optical transmission line; reflector system; Aerosols; Biographies; Biomedical optical imaging; MATLAB; Optical devices; Optical polarization; Optical reflection;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Aerospace Conference, 2015 IEEE

Conference_Location

Big Sky, MT

Print_ISBN

978-1-4799-5379-0

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/AERO.2015.7119133

Filename

7119133