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Analysis of experimental NRL radar altimeter data
Author(s) -
Walsh Edward J.
Publication year - 1974
Publication title -
radio science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.371
H-Index - 84
eISSN - 1944-799X
pISSN - 0048-6604
DOI - 10.1029/rs009i008p00711
Subject(s) - radar altimeter , remote sensing , radar , altimeter , pulse repetition frequency , sea state , optics , range (aeronautics) , pulse doppler radar , physics , environmental science , geology , geodesy , radar imaging , computer science , telecommunications , engineering , aerospace engineering
An X ‐band radar designed and built by the Naval Research Laboratory and capable of continuously variable transmitted pulse durations down to 1 nsec is being flown on a NASA Wallops Flight Center C‐54 aircraft to investigate the interaction of radar altimeter signals with the sea surface. There is good agreement between the observed radar altimeter leading edge rise time for a 1‐nsec transmitted pulse and the rise time predicted from the radar parameters and the sea state determined by a laser profilometer. Using a threshold tracker on 29‐pulse averages for a transmitted pulse of 24 nsec, we found that the range noise varied linearly with the power level of the threshold over a considerable range. The altimeter range quantization was 9.35 cm and a minimum range noise of 3.9 cm was obtained. A comparison of pulse‐to‐pulse correlation observed in the radar data with that predicted by a Monte Carlo simulation is used to obtain a measure of sea surface scatterer motion.