The Design and Development of a Hybrid RF/Laser Radar System for Measuring Changes in Ice Surface Elevation at Arctic Regions

• Main Authors: Christopher T. Allen, Yanki Cobanoglu
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2002
• Subjects: Arctic; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.161.4929; http://www.ittc.ku.edu/publications/documents/Allen2002_RSL%20TR%2018680-2.pdf

Satellites carrying laser radars for measuring ice sheet surface elevation, and aerosol characteristics are will be launched in the next few years. To achieve the necessary range accuracy and sensitivity, laser radars on these satellites will use shortduration, high peak power transmit pulses. These laser radars must operate with a lowpulse repetition frequency (PRF) due to the high peak transmit power. The low PRF will cause less dense sampling along the satellite track. The high peak power operation results in limited laser radar lifetime. To solve the limitation of using high peak transmit power, we have developed a hybrid RF/Laser radar that uses lower peak transmit power and higher PRF. RF pulse compression is used to improve system performance further. Receiver sensitivities of less than –90 dBm have been demonstrated by applying heterodyne detection and RF pulse compression. Compared to laser radars like GLAS and MOLA, this sensor requires a lower peak transmit power while providing more dense sampling of data from target. Manmade and natural extended-target range measurements have been made and the results are presented.