C-band Microwave Research Articles

Surface-Based Polarimetric C-Band Microwave Scatterometer Measurements of Snow During a Chinook Event

This paper presents a case study of C-band backscatter observations of snow during a Chinook event. A surface-based C-band polarimetric data set collected in February 2006 is used to contrast the polarimetric response to sampled conditions of bare frozen ground, cold snow-covered ground, and snow during a Chinook event. Chinook activity is inherently spatially and temporally variable across the region in winter and produces considerable spatial variability of snow-cover physical properties associated with snow-water-equivalent (SWE) estimates. A temporal analysis of polarimetric backscatter sensed during a Chinook-induced ablation event on February 27, 2006 is used to describe the associated changes in snow conditions and scattering mechanisms. Analysis reveals that the polarimetric surface-based C-band scatterometer data respond to changes in snow parameters associated with the specific ground and snow conditions and to the temporal Chinook ablation event. Use of the copolarizations, cross-polarization, depolarization ratio, copolarization ratio, complex copolarization correlation coefficient, and the copolarized phase difference information show promise in describing changes in snow physical parameters, differing ground and snow conditions, and transitional ablation events, based on differing scattering mechanisms. This paper infers that an increase in volume scattering and fluctuations in surface scattering during the Chinook ablation event may be associated with specific physical changes such as density, crystal structure, and permittivity caused by wind speed. This paper has implications for remotely sensed estimations of snow-covered area (SCA) and SWE. Association of SCA and SWE with backscatter coefficients is not explicit in this paper; however, changes in SWE and snow properties are inferentially linked to changes in backscatter.

Dynamic Performance of a Landing Radar BBM in Field Experiments

The Institute of Space and Astronautical Science JAXA is developing a landing radar comprising a radio altimeter and a velocity meter, which are two of the mandatory navigation sensors for a planetary lander. The landing radar employs a pulse-type radar using 4.3GHz C-band microwave radiation. It has a wide beam for measuring the altitude in vertical direction, as well as four narrow tilted beams for measuring the velocity in horizontal direction. A BBM of the landing radar has been evaluated on natural terrains by using a helicopter. This paper introduces the BBM hardware and discusses the dynamic performance in field experiments.

根を食害する幼虫検出のマイクロ波地中探査システム(機械力学,計測,自動制御)

A prospect system is offered to detect the plant vermin (e.g. larva of lamellicom beetle) living in the soil without digging up the soil by using a C-band microwave sensor (mean frequency: 5GHz). The characteristic of the prospect system is required to detect explicitly the behavior of vermin moving underground in the vicinity of the surface. The prospective characteristic, however, is limited by the magnitude of microwave attenuation (attenuation constant α) traveling in the soil which is depended on water contents of the soil. First of all, relation of microwave attenuation and water contents of the soil is measured for "Akadama" soil and "Kanuma" soil with uniform grain size, which are fundamentally used in gardening. Detectable critical transmission depth of soil for each water contents is confirmed as the result of the experiment. α was detected quantitatively varying the magnitude of vibration amplitude of mini-speaker (frequency: 1Hz, displacement: 0.1mm, 0.2mm, diameter of diaphragm: 25mm) embedded in the water content controlled soil (volume water contents: 0.3g/cm^3). In this case, detectable critical transmission depths of soil were 105mm, 125mm for the displacement amplitude 0.1mm, 0.2mm. The real movement of the larva of lamellicom beetle (head around width: 4mm, body length: 25mm) embedded in the soil was measured using the system. Critical transmission depths of the soil were 200mm and 100mm for the case of α: 0.1Np/cm and α: 0.2Np/cm. It was confirmed that the system is able to detect the vermin, if the moisture content of the soil is small.

On SAR wind speed ambiguities and related geophysical model functions

Recent investigations show that normalized radar cross sections for C-band microwave sensors decrease under high wind conditions with certain incident angles instead of increase, as is the case for low to moderate wind speeds. This creates the problem of ambiguities in high wind speed retrievals from synthetic aperture radar (SAR). In the present work, four geophysical model functions (GMFs) are studied, namely the high wind C-band model 4 (CMOD4HW), C-band model 5 (CMOD5), the high wind vertical polarized GMF (HWGMF_VV), and the high wind horizontal polarized GMF (HWGMF_HH). Our focus is on model behaviours relative to wind speed ambiguities. We show that, except for CMOD4HW, the other GMFs exhibit the wind speed ambiguity problem. To consider this problem in high wind speed retrievals from SAR, we focus on hurricanes and propose a method to remove the speed ambiguity using the dominant hurricane wind structure.

A Land Data Assimilation System for Soil Moisture and Temperature: An Information Content Study

Abstract A Canadian Land Data Assimilation System (CaLDAS) for the analysis of land surface prognostic variables is designed and implemented at the Meteorological Service of Canada for the initialization of numerical weather prediction and climate models. The assimilation of different data sources for the production of daily soil moisture and temperature analyses is investigated in a set of observing system simulation experiments over North America. A simplified variational technique is adapted to accommodate different observation types at their appropriate time in a 24-h time window. The screen-level observations of temperature and relative humidity, from conventional synoptic surface observations (SYNOP)/aviation routine weather report (METAR)/surface aviation observation (SA) reports, are considered together with presently available satellite observations provided by the Aqua satellite (microwave C-band), Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) [infrared (IR)], and observations available in the future by the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) satellite mission (microwave L-band). The aim of these experiments is to assess the information content brought by each observation type in the land surface analysis. The observation systems are simulated according to their spatial coverage, temporal availability, and nominal or expected errors. The results show that the observable with the largest dynamical response to perturbations of the control variable carries the greatest information content into the analysis. The observational error and the observation frequency counterbalance this feature in the analysis. If one considers a single observation both for soil moisture and soil temperature analysis, then satellite measurements (L-band, C-band, and IR in decreasing order of importance) are the primary source of information. When observation availability is considered and the highest temporal frequency of screen-level observations is used (1 h), a large amount of information is extracted from SYNOP-like reports. The screen-level observations are shown to provide valuable soil moisture information mainly during the daytime, while during nighttime these observations (and particularly screen-level temperature) are mostly useful for the soil temperature analysis. The results are presented with perspectives for future operational developments and preliminary assimilation experiments are performed with hourly screen-level observations.

C-band scattering simulation of a Scots pine shoot

Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) has the widest distribution of any pine and is one of the most important timber trees in Europe and one of the main species of boreal forest, which have an important role in climate change studies. The leaf area index (LAI) is one of the key input parameters for the climate change models. Recently a relationship between C-band backscattering and the LAI has been detected for Scots pine. To understand the C-band microwave characteristics of Scots pine shoots the backscattering is simulated using the so-called discrete dipole approximation (DDA), which is the only possible, nearly exact method for this problem. The backscattering of the shoot is dominated by the needles. The VV/HH backscattering ratio of closely spaced parallel and perpendicular shoots averages to that of a single shoot. For a simulated whole Scots pine crown the VV/HH backscattering ratio is related to the total orientation distribution of the needles. The variation range of the VV/HH backscattering ratio was 0.95–1.25, which is close to empirical values.

Airborne radio-frequency interference studies at C-band using a digital receiver

Corruption of C-band microwave brightness observations by radio-frequency interference (RFI) has been reported in recent data from orbiting radiometers; methods for mitigating these effects are of great importance for the design of future spaceborne microwave radiometers. One approach that has been suggested involves the use of multiple subchannels at C-band as opposed to a single channel; the use of multiple subchannels allows RFI to be detected and mitigated by analyzing relationships among subchannel brightnesses. While this approach has been utilized in previous airborne measurements, demonstrations of the RFI mitigation performance achieved have been difficult to obtain. To address this issue, an enhanced airborne system for observing radio-frequency interference effects on C-band microwave radiometers was developed, and is described in this paper. The system includes a traditional microwave radiometer with four C-band subchannels, so that RFI removal is possible using a subchannel mitigation algorithm. In addition, the system includes a digital receiver with the capability of providing high temporal and spectral resolution observations of interference. This high-resolution data allows improved understanding of RFI sources to be obtained, and also allows analysis of subchannel mitigation algorithm performance. Observations using the system in a test flight near Wallops Island, VA are described. Results show the four subchannel approach generally to be effective in mitigating the observed RFI sources, although examples are also illustrated using the digital receiver data to demonstrate failure of this approach. While studies of the digital receiver data alone could be performed to demonstrate further improvements in RFI mitigation, issues with this initial dataset limit the extent of such studies. Nevertheless, the results obtained still demonstrate qualitatively the improved RFI mitigation that can be achieved in brightness observations through the use of digital receivers

Relating microwave backscatter azimuth modulation to surface properties of the Greenland ice sheet

AbstractAzimuth dependence of a normalized radar cross-section (σº) over the Greenland ice sheet is modeled with a simple surface scattering model. The model assumes that azimuth anisotropy in surface roughness at scales of 3–300 m is the primary mechanism driving the modulation. To evaluate the contribution of azimuth anisotropy in surface roughness to the radar backscatter, the model is compared to models based on isotropic surface roughness. The models are inverted to estimate snow surface properties using σº measurements from the C-band European Remote-sensing Satellite advanced microwave instrument in scatterometer mode. Results indicate that the largest mesoscale rms surface slopes are found in the lower portions of the dry snow zone. Estimates of the preferential direction in surface roughness are highly correlated with katabatic wind fields over Greenland, which is consistent with wind-formed sastrugi as the dominant mechanism causing azimuth modulation of σº. The maximum improvement of the azimuth modulation surface model compared to its isotropic counterparts occurs in the lower regions of the dry snow zone where the azimuth variability of σº is the largest. In regions with azimuth modulation over 1 dB, the mean root-mean-square error estimate of the azimuth-dependent surface scattering model is 0.46 dB compared with 0.70 dB for similar models using isotropic roughness.

The use of remote-sensing data for mass-balance studies at Mýrdalsjökull ice cap, Iceland

AbstractA series of satellite images of Mýrdalsjökull, Iceland, was analyzed in view of their value for mass-balance investigations. A combination of optical satellite images from the ASTER sensor and synthetic aperture radar data from ERS-2 and Envisat ASAR proved very useful. The glacier margin of Mýrdalsjökull was delineated on ASTER images from summer and winter 2004. With a time series of summer ASAR images it was possible to monitor the temporal and spatial development of the transient snowline (TSL) throughout the year 2004, as well as the firn line (FL) at the end of the balance year. An ‘inverse’ function was applied to visually enhance detail in the radar imagery. Winter radar images were not useful for mass-balance observations because of frequent surface melting, which prevented the transparency of the snow cover for C-band microwaves. Interannual mass-balance fluctuations were observed by comparing three radar images acquired in late summer 1998, 1999 and 2004 respectively. These fluctuations follow the same trend as the annual mean air temperature which shows a strong increasing trend between 1999 and 2004. An accumulation-area ratio of <0.43 was determined for 2004, indicating clear negative mass-balance conditions. Monitoring the TSL-FL with radar summer images for mass-balance studies, rather than the equilibrium line (EL), is suggested for large ice caps in maritime climates.

An analytical calibration approach for microwave polarimetric radiometers

We present an analytical calibration approach for passive microwave polarimeters that is applicable where the instrument can be partitioned into distinct, functional radio-frequency blocks. The methodology is focused on polarimetric system characterization, not polarimetric measurements. It requires characterization of each major internal functional subsystem with a vector network analyzer to obtain a closed-form transfer function. The goals of this approach are to provide a transfer function describing the system in its entirety and to isolate the contribution of each subsystem to the uncertainty in the final modified Stokes parameters. Notably, the approach does not assume ideal polarization isolation in the radiometer system. A significant benefit of this approach is that the cascaded transfer functions serve as a realistic instrument simulator revealing where improvements in component performance would have greatest benefit for system performance over the dynamic range of the instrument. This systems-focused approach is applied to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Goddard Space Flight Center polarimetric Airborne C-band Microwave Radiometer (ACMR), whose architecture allows the necessary subsystem partitioning. The characteristics of each subsystem were extensively measured, converted to a transfer function, and imported into the overall closed-form system model. Inversion of the system model and error analysis inherent to this calibration approach are illustrated by a full Stokes parameter retrieval for a senescent cornfield.

An innovative image-guided radiotherapy system with a quasi-nonisocenteric feature

An innovative image-guided radiotherapy system with a quasi-nonisocenteric feature

Use of a C-Band Ground-Based Scatterometer to Monitor Surface Roughness and Soil Moisture Changes

Eight experiments on remote sensing of soil moisture and surface roughness were carried out over bare fields with a microwave C-band scatterometer from 1998 until 2001. This device is able to provide backscattering coefficients in the range of +10 dB and −40 dB for incidence angles between 10° and 60°. The objective is to assess the conditions (of roughness and incidence angle) in which it is possible to separate the effects of roughness and soil moisture, thus allowing a reliable estimation of soil moisture from backscattering coefficients. In particular, starting with measurements carried out at different incidence angles, we experimented with an approach to normalize the backscattering coefficients to a reference angle with the principal aim of comparing data sets acquired in different conditions and putting in evidence the radar response to soil moisture variations. A sensitivity analysis, performed over the whole acquired data set, confirmed that the dependence of backscattering coefficients on the incidence angle is influenced more by surface roughness than by soil moisture, as indicated also by theoretical models and other similar data sets. A significant result is that a simple model for comparing data acquired with different incidence angles works better for rough surfaces: only in this case an acceptable correlation between backscattering coefficients and soil moisture is retained. In order to better understand this behavior, the experiments carried out in 2001 were designed to acquire radar measurements on a test site where soil moisture was controlled with artificial irrigation and constantly monitored during the dry-down phase. This allowed a direct estimation of the relationship between radar responses and soil moisture, a quantitative evaluation of the sensitivity of our device and a test for the model developed using the previous acquisitions.

Sensitivity, spatial heterogeneity, and scaling of C-band microwave brightness temperatures for land hydrology studies

Soil moisture is one of the most important hydrological variables that characterizes the land surface water and energy balance. Measurements from space suffer from the problem of subpixel heterogeneity, i.e., soil moisture has spatial variability at all scales; therefore, it is important to realize the exact physical implication of the single value of the satellite measurements. In this paper, we study the sensitivity of C-band passive microwave brightness temperatures to various land surface variables. The issue of heterogeneity and its role in interpretation of single spatially averaged value of satellite brightness temperature is investigated. Finally, we use the brightness temperatures from the Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer to characterize spatial variability and to understand the variation of this variability with scale.

Pulsed ELDOR spectroscopy of the Mo(V)/Fe(III) state of sulfite oxidase prepared by one-electron reduction with Ti(III) citrate.

The titration of chicken liver sulfite oxidase (SO) with the one-electron reductant Ti(III) citrate, at pH 7.0, results in nearly quantitative selective reduction of the Mo(VI) center to Mo(V), while the b-type heme center remains in the fully oxidized Fe(III) state. The selective reduction of the Mo(VI/V) couple has been established from electronic and EPR spectra. The electronic spectrum of the Fe(III) heme center is essentially unchanged during the titration, and the continuous wave (CW)-EPR spectrum shows the appearance of the well-known Mo(V) signal due to the low pH ( lpH) form of SO. Further confirmation of the selective formation of the Mo(V)/Fe(III) form of SO is provided by the approximately 1:1 ratio of the integrated intensities of the Mo(V) and low-spin Fe(III) EPR signals after addition of one equivalent of Ti(III). The selective generation of the Mo(V)/Fe(III) form of SO is unexpected, considering that previous microcoulometry and flash photolysis investigations have indicated that the Mo(VI/V) and Fe(III/II) couples of SO have similar reduction potentials at pH 7. The nearly quantitative preparation of the one-electron reduced Mo(V)/Fe(III) form of SO by reduction with Ti(III) has enabled the interaction between these two paramagnetic metal centers, which are linked by a flexible loop with no secondary structure, to be investigated for the first time by variable-frequency pulsed electron-electron double resonance (ELDOR) spectroscopy. The ELDOR kinetics were obtained from frozen solutions at 4.2 K at several microwave frequencies by pumping on the narrow Mo(V) signal and observing the effect on the Fe(III) primary echo at both higher and lower frequencies within the microwave C-band region. The ELDOR data indicate that freezing the solution of one-electron reduced SO produces localized regions where the concentration of SO approaches that in the crystal structure, which results in the interpair interactions being the dominant dipolar interaction. However, thorough analysis of the ELDOR decay curves and simulations suggests a distribution of intramolecular Mo...Fe distances, consistent with the proposal of multiple conformations in solution for the flexible loop that connects the Mo and heme domains of SO.

Relationships between forest structure and the detection of flood inundation in forested wetlands using C-band SAR

An important practical application of orbital SAR data is the detection of flood inundation beneath forest canopies. C-band microwaves (especially C-VV) are generally considered inferior to longer wavelengths (especially L-band) for mapping flooded forests. Nevertheless C-band data have been shown to exhibit sensitivity to inundation beneath forest canopies. Because of this, the application and interpretation of C-band images requires identification of the forest conditions under which C-band microwaves detect inundation. Images from ERS-1 and RADARSAT representing nearly identical hydrological conditions were used to classify flooded and nonflooded forests for the Roanoke River floodplain, North Carolina, USA. Flooded forests were detected accurately using RADARSAT, and were distinguishable but not mapped accurately using ERS-1. This poses potential problems for the accurate interpretation of C-VV images (i.e. ERS-1/ERS-2) in such environments. To examine this issue, biophysical data from forest plots were used to assess the effect of forest structure on the ability of ERS-1 to detect flooded forests. Basal area (BA) and height to the bottom of the canopy exhibited statistically significant relationships to the detection of inundation using ERS-1, while leaf area index, canopy height, canopy depth, and crown closure were not statistically significant. The results suggest that forest structure and scattering processes at the trunk layer (due to higher BA and open understories with greater heights to the bottom of the canopy) most strongly influence double-bounce scattering of C-VV microwaves from flooded forests.

Development of an algorithm for estimating snow hydrological parameters in wet snow areas using satellite-based SAR images

The objective of this study is to develop an algorithm for quantitatively estimating snow hydrological parameters using a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) mounted on a satellite and a numerical scattering model. Simultaneous RADARSAT SAR observations were carried out during the winter seasons of 1996 to 1998. The study area is located in the Hokuriku District, Niigata Prefecture, Japan, that is well known for having wet snow with a complicated layer structure from the beginning of the winter season. In previous studies, we sought to estimate the distributions of snow depth and surface roughness using these multi-temporal RADARSAT images. However, snow depths over 20cm were underestimated because the extinction effects at C-band microwave were too large. In this study, we develop an algorithm to estimate distributions of snow density and roughness using observation datasets with some parameterization techniques and assumptions. Furthermore, we show the possibility of inferring snow depths from combined parameters estimated with a L-band SAR image at test sites.

Development of MMIC-based modules for multichannel RF/optical subcarrier multiplexed communications applications

We present a C-band monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) transmitter module development for multichannel RF/optical subcarrier multiplexed (OSCM) communication applications. The C-band MMIC transmitter module consists of one fully monolithic four-channel OSCM transmitter IC and four coupled-line filters. This MMIC is designed and implemented in a commercial GaAs MESFET process and coupled line bandpass filters are fabricated on the module board. We present the design and performance of the first fully monolithic IC transmitter module for OSCM packet switched applications.

Dielectric properties of electrolytic solutions

The variation in dielectric properties of water with the addition of ionic salts have been measured using automated frequency domain experimental microwave C-band. The dielectric properties, that is dielectric constant (e′) and dielectric loss (e″) of two electrolyte solutions for various concentrations have been measured at 5-GHz frequency at room temperature. It has been observed that for concentration between 0.2 to 1.0 mole the dielectric constant of water is smaller and some larger than that of pure water and dielectric loss increases with increasing concentration of these salts. It has been also observed that the variation in dielectric loss is different, though the ionic concentration of the two salts are equal.

Field observations and model calculations of dielectric properties of Arctic sea ice in the microwave C-band

The complex dielectric constant of first-year and multiyear sea ice was measured during the Seasonal Ice Monitoring and Modeling (SIMMS) field experiments, conducted in the Arctic in the spring of 1992, 1993, and 1995. The dielectric constant was also computed based on an established dielectric mixing model by using different assumptions about inclusion shape. Computations were based on detailed measurements and observations of ice physical properties and crystalline structure. Comparison between measurements and model results was conducted to identify working models for first-year and multiyear ice. For first-year ice, models that employ the assumption of vertically oriented brine pockets are applicable to columnar ice and those with the assumption of randomly oriented brine pockets are applicable to frazil ice. The validity of the models are established only for ice temperatures less than -8/spl deg/C. For multiyear ice, there is no need to account for air bubble shape. The coexistence of brine and air inclusions in multiyear pond ice makes it characteristically different from hummock ice. Best results for pond ice were obtained from a simple model that accounts only for volume fractions of inclusions, rather than their shape. Physical parameters that can be retrieved directly from the dielectric constant are salinity of first-year ice at temperatures below -15/spl deg/C and density of multiyear hummock ice. Detailed measurements of permittivity and loss of first-year and multiyear ice are presented along with some insight into interactions between the dielectric constant and physical parameters.

An Experimental Study on Microwave Backscattering from Laboratory Wave Surfaces

This paper describes the experimental results backscattering from wave surfaces by using microwave scatterometer. Active microwave remote sensing is considered to be very useful to observe the vast ocean at one time, while the ocean phenomena change quickly. The characterization of the microwave backscattering from wave surfaces is investigated in a wind wave tunnel and a square basin by using a C-band (5.2 GHz) microwave scatterometer. This paper clears the relationships between microwave backscattered power and wind driven waves. The significant wave height of wind wave and the average period, the wave direction contribute to Backscattering. The HH and VH-polarization are effective for monitoring the wind wave than the VV and HV-polarization.