In-Orbit Validation of the FMPL-2 Instrument—The GNSS-R and L-Band Microwave Radiometer Payload of the FSSCat Mission
The Flexible Microwave Payload-2 is the GNSS-R and L-band Microwave Radiometer Payload on board 3Cat-5/A, one of the two 6-unit CubeSats of the FSSCat mission, which were successfully launched on 3 September 2020 on Vega flight VV16. The instrument occupies nearly a single unit of the CubeSat, and i...
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ftmdpi:oai:mdpi.com:/2072-4292/13/1/121/ 2023-08-20T04:09:43+02:00 In-Orbit Validation of the FMPL-2 Instrument—The GNSS-R and L-Band Microwave Radiometer Payload of the FSSCat Mission Joan Francesc Munoz-Martin Lara Fernandez Adrian Perez Joan Adrià Ruiz-de-Azua Hyuk Park Adriano Camps Bernardo Carnicero Domínguez Massimiliano Pastena agris 2020-12-31 application/pdf https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13010121 EN eng Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/rs13010121 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Remote Sensing; Volume 13; Issue 1; Pages: 121 GNSS-R microwave radiometry L-band CubeSat sea ice soil moisture Text 2020 ftmdpi https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13010121 2023-08-01T00:47:20Z The Flexible Microwave Payload-2 is the GNSS-R and L-band Microwave Radiometer Payload on board 3Cat-5/A, one of the two 6-unit CubeSats of the FSSCat mission, which were successfully launched on 3 September 2020 on Vega flight VV16. The instrument occupies nearly a single unit of the CubeSat, and its goal is to provide sea-ice extension and thickness over the poles, and soil moisture maps at low-moderate resolution over land, which will be downscaled using data from Cosine Hyperscout-2 on board 3Cat-5/B. The spacecrafts are in a 97.5° inclination Sun-synchronous orbit, and both the reflectometer and the radiometer have been successfully executed and validated over both the North and the South poles. This manuscript presents the results and validation of the first data sets collected by the instrument during the first two months of the mission. The results of the validation are showing a radiometric accuracy better than 2 K, and a sensitivity lower than the Kelvin. For the reflectometer, the results are showing that the sea-ice transition can be estimated even at short integration times (40 ms). The presented results shows the potential for Earth Observation missions based on CubeSats, which temporal and spatial resolution can be further increased by means of CubeSat constellations. Text Sea ice MDPI Open Access Publishing Remote Sensing 13 1 121 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
MDPI Open Access Publishing |
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ftmdpi |
language |
English |
topic |
GNSS-R microwave radiometry L-band CubeSat sea ice soil moisture |
spellingShingle |
GNSS-R microwave radiometry L-band CubeSat sea ice soil moisture Joan Francesc Munoz-Martin Lara Fernandez Adrian Perez Joan Adrià Ruiz-de-Azua Hyuk Park Adriano Camps Bernardo Carnicero Domínguez Massimiliano Pastena In-Orbit Validation of the FMPL-2 Instrument—The GNSS-R and L-Band Microwave Radiometer Payload of the FSSCat Mission |
topic_facet |
GNSS-R microwave radiometry L-band CubeSat sea ice soil moisture |
description |
The Flexible Microwave Payload-2 is the GNSS-R and L-band Microwave Radiometer Payload on board 3Cat-5/A, one of the two 6-unit CubeSats of the FSSCat mission, which were successfully launched on 3 September 2020 on Vega flight VV16. The instrument occupies nearly a single unit of the CubeSat, and its goal is to provide sea-ice extension and thickness over the poles, and soil moisture maps at low-moderate resolution over land, which will be downscaled using data from Cosine Hyperscout-2 on board 3Cat-5/B. The spacecrafts are in a 97.5° inclination Sun-synchronous orbit, and both the reflectometer and the radiometer have been successfully executed and validated over both the North and the South poles. This manuscript presents the results and validation of the first data sets collected by the instrument during the first two months of the mission. The results of the validation are showing a radiometric accuracy better than 2 K, and a sensitivity lower than the Kelvin. For the reflectometer, the results are showing that the sea-ice transition can be estimated even at short integration times (40 ms). The presented results shows the potential for Earth Observation missions based on CubeSats, which temporal and spatial resolution can be further increased by means of CubeSat constellations. |
format |
Text |
author |
Joan Francesc Munoz-Martin Lara Fernandez Adrian Perez Joan Adrià Ruiz-de-Azua Hyuk Park Adriano Camps Bernardo Carnicero Domínguez Massimiliano Pastena |
author_facet |
Joan Francesc Munoz-Martin Lara Fernandez Adrian Perez Joan Adrià Ruiz-de-Azua Hyuk Park Adriano Camps Bernardo Carnicero Domínguez Massimiliano Pastena |
author_sort |
Joan Francesc Munoz-Martin |
title |
In-Orbit Validation of the FMPL-2 Instrument—The GNSS-R and L-Band Microwave Radiometer Payload of the FSSCat Mission |
title_short |
In-Orbit Validation of the FMPL-2 Instrument—The GNSS-R and L-Band Microwave Radiometer Payload of the FSSCat Mission |
title_full |
In-Orbit Validation of the FMPL-2 Instrument—The GNSS-R and L-Band Microwave Radiometer Payload of the FSSCat Mission |
title_fullStr |
In-Orbit Validation of the FMPL-2 Instrument—The GNSS-R and L-Band Microwave Radiometer Payload of the FSSCat Mission |
title_full_unstemmed |
In-Orbit Validation of the FMPL-2 Instrument—The GNSS-R and L-Band Microwave Radiometer Payload of the FSSCat Mission |
title_sort |
in-orbit validation of the fmpl-2 instrument—the gnss-r and l-band microwave radiometer payload of the fsscat mission |
publisher |
Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13010121 |
op_coverage |
agris |
genre |
Sea ice |
genre_facet |
Sea ice |
op_source |
Remote Sensing; Volume 13; Issue 1; Pages: 121 |
op_relation |
https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/rs13010121 |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13010121 |
container_title |
Remote Sensing |
container_volume |
13 |
container_issue |
1 |
container_start_page |
121 |
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1774723361449967616 |