Ionospheric effects on a wide-bandwidth, polarimetric, space-based, synthetic-aperture radar

Technical Report · Thu Dec 31 23:00:00 EST 1992

OSTI ID:6518876

Brock, B C

The earth's ionosphere consists of an ionized plasma which will interact with any electromagnetic wave propagating through it. The interaction is particularly strong at vhf and uhf frequencies but decreases for higher microwave frequencies. These interaction effects and their relationship to the operation of a wide-bandwidth, synthetic-aperture, space-based radar are examined. Emphasis is placed on the dispersion effects and the polarimetric effects. Results show that high-resolution (wide-bandwidth) and high-quality coherent polarimetrics will be very difficult to achieve below 1 GHz.

• Research Organization: Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: DOE; USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: AC04-76DP00789
• OSTI ID: 6518876
• Report Number(s): SAND-92-1967; ON: DE93015084
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

661320* -- Auroral
Ionospheric
& Magnetospheric Phenomena-- (1992-)
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
EARTH ATMOSPHERE
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
FREQUENCY RANGE
GHZ RANGE
GHZ RANGE 01-100
IONOSPHERE
IONOSPHERIC EFFECTS
MEASURING INSTRUMENTS
MHZ RANGE
MHZ RANGE 100-1000
OPTICAL DISPERSION
PLANETARY IONOSPHERES
PLASMA
POLARIZATION
RADAR
RADIATIONS
RADIOWAVE RADIATION
RANGE FINDERS
REMOTE SENSING
SPACE
SYNTHETIC-APERTURE RADAR
WAVE PROPAGATION