Limiting accuracy of the dual-frequency microwave interferometry measurement for sea surface monitoring from space

Abstract

The method based on the dual-frequency correlation function of reflected signals is one of the effective approaches for sea wave height estimation in radar altimetry. This method, however, has been applied for relatively low-altitude flights. As shown in our early studies, for the estimation of the sea wave heights using the dual-frequency correlation function, it is necessary to synthesize the array antennas, which are perpendicular to the flight direction. In this paper, we derived the limiting accuracy of the measurement of the sea wave heights using the dual-frequency microwave interferometry, and analyzed its dependence on the sea wave heights and the radar system parameters. Evaluation of the limiting accuracy of the measurement of the sea wave heights shown in the paper verified its high accuracy for sea status monitoring using a small remote sensing spacecraft.

Keywords:

• remote sensing
• limiting accuracy
• dual frequency
• interferometry
• altimetry
• synthetic aperture
• sea surface

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the MSIP (Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning), Korea, under the “IT Consilience Creative Program” [IITP-2015-R0346-15-1008] supervised by the IITP (Institute for Information & Communications Technology Promotion), and Russian Foundation for Basic Research [13-08-00735a, 13-08-97538]; Russian Science Foundation [15-11-10022]; and State Tasks in the field of scientific activity [8.152.2014/K].