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Completed TRL 4 (started at 3, targeting 4)
The objective of this work is to demonstrate a new generation of digital beamforming synthetic aperture instrument technology (DBSAR-2) which has the potential of providing high quality data in support of several disciplines in Earth and planetary sciences and enable future spaceborne and airborne NASA missions.
This effort leverages ESTO and SBIR investments aimed at enabling fully polarimetric digital beamforming multimode radar, high resolution (wideband) measurements, and advanced digital radar waveform synthesis and processing. The effort will build upon the technology path set out by the Digital Beamforming Synthetic Aperture Radar (DBSAR) and leverage three new developments to implement the most advanced polarimetric Digital Beamforming L-Band radar architecture for airborne applications.
The new generation radar technology will be very valuable for future Earth and planetary science missions. For example, for Earth science, the full polarimetric backscatter measurements provide the unique capability of mapping the forest cover, disturbance from deforestation and degradation, forest recovery, wetland inundation, and above ground biomass. For Planetary, multiple mode operation, polarization capabilities, and onboard processing are significant enhancements over other radars flown to planetary targets. Fully polarimetric radar data are also critical in the development and validation of retrieval algorithms for future airborne and spaceborne applications.
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