Dual-Band Piecewise-Linear Profile Feed-Horns for the Copernicus Imaging Microwave Radiometer Mission

Giuseppe Addamo,B Fiorelli,G Virone,G Dassano,Marco Grilli,O A Peverini,M Lumia

doi:10.1109/lawp.2021.3098375

Abstract

This letter presents the design strategy and the experimental results on the Ku/Ka dual-band feed-horn developed within the Phase A/B1 study of the Copernicus imaging microwave radiometer, which is one of the new six expansion missions of the European Copernicus flagship program on Earth observation operating in five frequency channels. The radiometer requirements translate into a dense focal plane composed by compact and lightweight dual-band feed horns. The optimum illumination was derived in terms of Bloch waves and the applicability of piecewise-linear profile feed-horns for its synthesis in the case of two highly separated Ku--/Ka--frequency bands (1:1.95) was investigated. The presented feed-horn design was validated up to a technological readiness level of 6. The reported performances at antenna level for the complete Ku-/Ka-band feed cluster demonstrate the feasibility of dual-band smooth-wall feed-horns focal-planes meeting all the Earth observation requirements in terms of footprints, beam- and wide-beam efficiencies, and cross-polarization.

Highlights

T HE Copernicus imaging microwave radiometer (CIMR) mission is one of the six Copernicus expansion missions, an Earth-monitoring initiative led by the European Union (EU) and carried out in partnership with the EU Member States and the European Space Agency
The view expressed can in no way be taken to reflect the official opinion of the European Space Agency. (Corresponding author: Giuseppe Addamo.)
The observation zenith angle (OZA), which is the angle between the satellite viewing direction and the local zenith on Earth, can range from 53.5° to 56.5°

Summary

Introduction

T HE Copernicus imaging microwave radiometer (CIMR) mission is one of the six Copernicus expansion missions, an Earth-monitoring initiative led by the European Union (EU) and carried out in partnership with the EU Member States and the European Space Agency. The CIMR antenna subsystem design (end of phase A) is summarized in Section II-A, where the requirements for the Ku-/Ka feed-horn design are derived using a Bloch-wave approach.

Results

Conclusion