A HIGH CROSS-POL ISOLATION MULTI-FREQUENCY ANTENNA FOR CLOUD AND PRECIPITATION RESEARCH REMOTE SENSING SOLU…

Public award description

A HIGH CROSS-POL ISOLATION MULTI-FREQUENCY ANTENNA FOR CLOUD AND PRECIPITATION RESEARCH REMOTE SENSING SOLUTIONS WILL EVALUATE THE CRITICAL PARAMETERS AND GENERATE A DESIGN APPROACH FOR A PORTABLE, ALL-WEATHER MULTI-WAVELENGTH ANTENNA SYSTEM SUITABLE FOR SUPPORTING GPM GROUND VALIDATION AND FOR USE IN OTHER NASA CLOUD AND PRECIPITATION RESEARCH PROGRAMS. THE ANTENNA SYSTEM WILL HAVE A NUMBER OF UNIQUE CHARACTERISTICS INCLUDING HIGH GAIN (APPROXIMATELY 1 DEG HALF-POWER BEAM WIDTH) AND MATCHED ANTENNA BEAM SHAPES. THE ANTENNA WILL SUPPORT MULTIPLE FREQUENCIES USED FOR CLOUD AND PRECIPITATION SENSING. THE BASIC DESIGN WILL PROVIDE KU-BAND (14 GHZ) AND KA-BAND (35 GHZ) CHANNELS THAT CAN SUPPORT A VARIETY OF POLARIZATION AND ABSORPTION-BASED RAIN RETRIEVAL ALGORITHMS. AN ADDITIONAL 95 GHZ CHANNEL WILL BE CONSIDERED TO AUGMENT THE CLOUD-SENSING CAPABILITIES OF THE ANTENNA AND TO ALLOW PARTICLE SIZING IN CLOUDS. THE ANTENNA WILL HAVE EXTREMELY HIGH CROSS-POLARIZATION ISOLATION SUITABLE FOR IDENTIFYING ICE CLOUD PARTICLE HABIT.