Development of a two dimensional synthetic aperture radiometer at L-band

A synthetic aperture radiometer that uses aperture synthesis in two dimensions is being built as part of NASA's Instrument Incubator Program by a team at the Goddard Space Flight Center, the University of Massachusetts and Quadrant Engineering Inc. This will be an aircraft instrument operating at L-band. It is being designed to operate in a nadir-pointing mode, although other options are possible. The antenna will consist of an array of dual polarized patch antennas and each patch will have its own receiver. The IF from each receiver will go to a central processor where the signal will be digitized and the correlations performed. Breadboards for the components are being tested and it is expected that the instrument will be ready for flight tests by summer of 2001.