Small Business Innovation Research/Small Business Tech Transfer
Advanced Pulse Compression System and Testbed
Project Description
Future space-borne cloud radars will require significant technical innovations for improving remote sensing of the Earth's atmosphere and that of other planetary bodies such as Venus and Saturn's moon Titan, which have significant cloud cover. One critical innovation required is a pulse compression scheme at W-band (95 GHz) with ultra-low range sidelobe levels - on the order of 90 dB. The current space-borne cloud radar flying on CloudSat is an outstanding technical achievement but lacks sensitivity to weakly reflecting low altitude clouds. Because these clouds play a significant role in modulation the Earth's radiation budget follow-on missions will have to address this limitation. Pulse compression (coded) waveforms can maximize transmitter duty cycle usage and thus system sensitivity. However, the reflection from the Earth's surface can easily mask the cloud signal via the coded waveforms range sidelobe response. The requirement for detecting these clouds from space is severe and significant innovations are required to meet them. The proposed research addresses this requirement and is supported by staff who have significant experience in MMW system development, having built and flown the first airborne cloud radar utilizing FM chirp pulse compression.
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Anticipated Benefits
Numerous commercial applications exist for a low range sidelobe MMW radar pulse compression scheme. Currently, low power MMW sensors are used in a number of industrial applications, including 3-D machine vision systems that rely on the radar for target identification and obstacle avoidance. In addition there are new opportunities in developing obstacle avoidance radars for helicopters and unmanned aircraft and vehicles that would directly benefit from the proposed research.
The proposed research is a critical component of CloudSat follow-on missions and potential missions to explore methane clouds and precipitation on Titan. In addition the techniques proposed would be of general benefit to the meteorological community in improving sensitivity while maintaining the integrity of cloud boundary location and cloud edge reflectivity measurements, especially in convective systems where large reflectivity gradients exist. More »
The proposed research is a critical component of CloudSat follow-on missions and potential missions to explore methane clouds and precipitation on Titan. In addition the techniques proposed would be of general benefit to the meteorological community in improving sensitivity while maintaining the integrity of cloud boundary location and cloud edge reflectivity measurements, especially in convective systems where large reflectivity gradients exist. More »
Primary U.S. Work Locations and Key Partners
| Organizations Performing Work | Role | Type | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
| Remote Sensing Solutions, Inc. | Lead Organization | Industry | Barnstable, Massachusetts |
Goddard Space Flight Center
(GSFC)
|
Supporting Organization | NASA Center | Greenbelt, Maryland |
Primary U.S. Work Locations
-
Maryland
-
Massachusetts
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This is a historic project that was completed before the creation of TechPort on October 1, 2012. Available data has been included. This record may contain less data than currently active projects.