TY - GEN

T1 - POLARIS: ESA's airborne ice sounding radar front-end design, performance assessment and first results

A1 - Hernández,Carlos Cilla

A1 - Krozer,Viktor

A1 - Vidkjær,Jens

A1 - Dall,Jørgen

AU - Hernández,Carlos Cilla

AU - Krozer,Viktor

AU - Vidkjær,Jens

AU - Dall,Jørgen

PB - IEEE

PY - 2009

Y1 - 2009

N2 - This paper addresses the design, implementation and experimental performance assessment of the RF front-end of an airborne P-band ice sounding radar. The ice sounder design comprises commercial-of-the-shelf modules and newly purpose-built components at a centre frequency of 435 MHz with 20% relative bandwidth. The transmitter uses two amplifiers combined in parallel to generate more than >128 W peak power, with system >60% PAE and 47 dB in-band to out-of-band signal ratio. The four channel receiver features digitally controlled variable gain to achieve more than 100 dB dynamic range, 2.4 dB noise figure, 160 ns receiver recovery time and -46 dBc 3rd order IMD products. The system comprises also, a digital front-end, a digital signal generator, a microstrip antenna array and a control unit. All the subsystems were integrated, certified and functionally tested, and in May 2008 a successful proof-of-concept campaign was organized in Greenland. The system detected the bedrock under 3 km of ice, and internal layers were mapped up to 1.3 km.

AB - This paper addresses the design, implementation and experimental performance assessment of the RF front-end of an airborne P-band ice sounding radar. The ice sounder design comprises commercial-of-the-shelf modules and newly purpose-built components at a centre frequency of 435 MHz with 20% relative bandwidth. The transmitter uses two amplifiers combined in parallel to generate more than >128 W peak power, with system >60% PAE and 47 dB in-band to out-of-band signal ratio. The four channel receiver features digitally controlled variable gain to achieve more than 100 dB dynamic range, 2.4 dB noise figure, 160 ns receiver recovery time and -46 dBc 3rd order IMD products. The system comprises also, a digital front-end, a digital signal generator, a microstrip antenna array and a control unit. All the subsystems were integrated, certified and functionally tested, and in May 2008 a successful proof-of-concept campaign was organized in Greenland. The system detected the bedrock under 3 km of ice, and internal layers were mapped up to 1.3 km.

U2 - 10.1109/MWSYM.2009.5165716

DO - 10.1109/MWSYM.2009.5165716

SN - 978-1-4244-2803-8

BT - IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium Digest, 2009. MTT '09

T2 - IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium Digest, 2009. MTT '09

SP - 393

EP - 396

ER -