A Novel Low-cost, Ka-band, High Altitude, Multi-Baseline Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Sensor for Surface Water Ocean Topography

The NRC Decadal Survey recommended the Surface Water Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite mission to address terrestrial fresh water hydrology and physical oceanography science questions. The proposed effort will develop a low-cost, Ka-band, multi-temporal baseline radar sensor designed to fly on high altitude unmanned aerial vehicle (Global Hawk) and acquire phenomenology (i.e. temporal, coherence, near-nadir scattering cross-section and vegetation attenuation) measurements in support of the SWOT mission. To realize this sensor, innovations in the sensor design, transceiver digital receiver and antenna are required. The Phase I will result in a system design for these subsystems that can be realized in a Phase II effort. During the Phase I, analytic studies and modeling will be performed to demonstrate feasibility and to perform the necessary tradeoffs. Leveraging a high altitude, FPGA-based digital receiver system developed by RSS and its development system, the digital receiver capabilities will be extended and initial laboratory testing performed. The Phase II effort will realize a prototype of this sensor.At the end of the Phase I, a technology readiness level of 3 will be achieved.