This work describes the development of a large Ka Band Slot Array for the Glacier and Land Ice Surface Topography Interferometer (GLISTIN), a proposed spaceborne interferometric synthetic aperture radar for topographic mapping of ice sheets and glaciers. GLISTIN will collect ice...

The requirement for scatterometer-combined transmit-receive gain variation knowledge is typically addressed by sampling a portion of the transmit signal, attenuating it with a known-stable attenuation, and coupling it into the receiver chain. This way, the gain variations of the transmit and...

Space weather is described as the variability of solar wind plasma that can disturb satellites and systems and affect human space exploration. Accurate prediction requires information of the heliosphere inside the orbit of the Earth. However, for predictions using...

Traditionally microstrip or printed reflectarrays are designed using the “transmit mode” technique. In this method, the size of each printed element is chosen so as to provide the required value of the reflection phase such that a collimated beam results along a given direction. The...

For humidity and temperature sounding of Earth’s atmosphere, a single-antenna/LNA (low-noise amplifier) is needed in place of two separate antennas for the two frequency bands. This results in significant mass and power savings for GeoSTAR that is comprised of hundreds of...

In recent years, some remote-sensing applications require advanced airborne multi-sensor systems to provide high performance reflective and emissive spectral imaging measurement rapidly over large areas. The key or unique problem of characteristics is associated with a black box back-end system...

Future remote sensing instruments will require focal plane spectrometer arrays with higher resolution at high frequencies. One of the major components of spectrometers are the local oscillator (LO) signal sources that are used to drive mixers to down-convert received radio-frequency...

Software has been designed to schedule remote sensing with the Earth Observing One spacecraft. The software attempts to satisfy as many observation requests as possible considering each against spacecraft operation constraints such as data volume, thermal, pointing maneuvers, and others. More complex constraints such...

Superpixels are homogeneous image regions comprised of several contiguous pixels. They are produced by shattering the image into contiguous, homogeneous regions that each cover between 20 and 100 image pixels. The segmentation aims for a many-to-one mapping from superpixels to image...

As shown by the Phoenix Mars Lander’s Thermal and Electrical Conductivity Probe (TECP), contact measurements of thermal conductivity and diffusivity (using a modified flux-plate or line-source heat-pulse method) are constrained by a number of factors. Robotic...

An algorithm was developed to generate crop yield predictions from orbital remote sensing observations, by analyzing thousands of pixels per county and the associated historical crop yield data for those counties. The algorithm determines which pixels...

Precise laser remote sensing of aerosol extinction and backscatter in the atmosphere requires a high-power, pulsed, frequency doubled Nd:YAG laser that is wavelength-stabilized to a narrow absorption line such as found in iodine vapor. One...

Traveling-wave tubes (TWTs), such as the Ka-band (26-GHz) model recently developed for the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, are essential as communication amplifiers in spacecraft for virtually all near- and deep-space missions. This innovation is a computational design algorithm that, for...

An analytical, advanced imaging method has been developed for the initial monitoring and identification of foam debris and similar anomalies that occur post-launch in reference to the space shuttle’s external tank (ET). Remote sensing technologies have been used to...

The Phenological Parameters Estimation Tool (PPET) is a set of algorithms implemented in MATLAB that estimates key vegetative phenological parameters. For a given year, the PPET software package takes in temporally processed vegetation index data (3D spatio-temporal arrays) generated by the time series...

A superstructured fiber-grating-based mode selection filter for a single-frequency fiber laser eliminates all free-space components, and makes the laser truly all-fiber. A ring cavity provides for stable operations in both frequency and power. There is no alignment or realignment required. After the...

A measurement-based radiance estimation approach for vicarious radiometric calibration of spaceborne multispectral remote sensing systems has been developed. This simplified process eliminates the use of radiative transfer codes and reduces the number of atmospheric assumptions required to perform sensor...

A hybrid ocean wind sensor (HOWS) can map ocean vector wind in low to hurricane-level winds, and non-precipitating and precipitating conditions. It can acquire active and passive measurements through a single aperture at two wavelengths, two polarizations, and multiple incidence angles. Its low profile, compact...

PseudoDiversity is a method of recovering the wavefront in a sparse- or segmented-aperture optical system typified by an interferometer or a telescope equipped with an adaptive primary mirror consisting of controllably slightly moveable segments. (PseudoDiversity should not be confused...

A device combines video feeds from multiple cameras to provide wide-field-of-view, high-resolution, stereoscopic video to the user. The prototype under development consists of two camera assemblies, one for each eye. One of these assemblies incorporates a mounting structure with multiple...

A fiber-based laser transmitter has been designed for active remote-sensing spectroscopy. The transmitter uses a master-oscillator- power-amplifier (MOPA) configuration with a distributed feedback diode-laser master oscillator and an erbium-doped fiber amplifier. The...

A single-aperture, low-profile antenna design has been developed that supports dual-polarization and simultaneous operation at two wavelengths. It realizes multiple beams in the elevation plane, and supports radiometric, radar, and conical scanning applications.

A two-dimensional synthetic-aperture radiometer, now undergoing development, serves as a test bed for demonstrating the potential of aperture synthesis for remote sensing of the Earth, particularly for measuring spatial distributions of soil moisture and ocean-surface salinity. The goal is to use the...