Microwave Radar and Radiometric Remote Sensing


Book Description

Microwave and millimeter wave high-power vacuum electron devices (VEDs) are essential elements in specialized military, scientific, medical and space applications. They can produce mega watts of power which would be equal to the power of thousands of solid state power devices (SSPDs). Similarly, in most of today's T/R-Modules of active phased array antennas for radars and electronic warfare applications GaAs based hybrid and MMIC amplifiers are used. The early applications of millimeter-wave MMICs were in military, space and astronomy systems. In the last three decades, microwave remote sensing has shown a high potential in characterization of land surface parameters (soil moisture, vegetation biomass, water covers, etc.). In this context, a very rich activity has been developed to propose techniques (satellite, airborne, in situ) and methodologies to optimize contribution of microwave remote sensing, in terms of precision, spatial, and temporal resolutions. Microwave Radar and Radiometric Remote Sensing provides you with theoretical models, system design and operation, and geoscientific applications of active and passive microwave remote sensing systems. It is aimed to the study of both reviews and original researches related to recent innovative microwave remote sensing instrumentation for land surface applications. Microwave remote sensing provides a unique capability towards achieving this goal. Over the past decade, significant progress has been made in microwave remote sensing of land processes through development of advanced airborne and space-borne microwave sensors, and the tools - such as physics-based models and advanced inversion algorithms - needed for analyzing the data. These activities have sharply increased in recent years since the launch of the ERS-1/2, JERS-1, and RADARS AT satellites, and with the availability of radiometric data from SSM/I. A new era has begun with the recent space missions ESA-ENVISAT, NASA-AQUA, and NASDA-ADEOSII, and the upcoming PALSAR and RADARSAT2 missions, which open new horizons for a wide range of operational microwave remote-sensing applications. This book highlights major activities and important results achieved in this area over the past years.




Introduction to Microwave Remote Sensing


Book Description

Introduction to Microwave Remote Sensing offers an extensive overview of this versatile and extremely precise technology for technically oriented undergraduates and graduate students. This textbook emphasizes an important shift in conceptualization and directs it toward students with prior knowledge of optical remote sensing: the author dispels any linkage between microwave and optical remote sensing. Instead, he constructs the concept of microwave remote sensing by comparing it to the process of audio perception, explaining the workings of the ear as a metaphor for microwave instrumentation. This volume takes an “application-driven” approach. Instead of describing the technology and then its uses, this textbook justifies the need for measurement then explains how microwave technology addresses this need. Following a brief summary of the field and a history of the use of microwaves, the book explores the physical properties of microwaves and the polarimetric properties of electromagnetic waves. It examines the interaction of microwaves with matter, analyzes passive atmospheric and passive surface measurements, and describes the operation of altimeters and scatterometers. The textbook concludes by explaining how high resolution images are created using radars, and how techniques of interferometry can be applied to both passive and active sensors.







Microwave Propagation and Remote Sensing


Book Description

Because prevailing atmospheric/troposcopic conditions greatly influence radio wave propagation above 10 GHz, the unguided propagation of microwaves in the neutral atmosphere can directly impact many vital applications in science and engineering. These include transmission of intelligence, and radar and radiometric applications used to probe the atmosphere, among others. Where most books address either one or the other, Microwave Propagation and Remote Sensing: Atmospheric Influences with Models and Applications melds coverage of these two subjects to help readers develop solutions to the problems they present. This reference offers a brief, elementary account of microwave propagation through the atmosphere and discusses radiometric applications in the microwave band used to characterize and model atmospheric constituents, which is also known as remote sensing. Summarizing the latest research results in the field, as well as radiometric models and measurement methods, this book covers topics including: Free space propagation Reflection, interference, polarization, and other key aspects of electromagnetic wave propagation Radio refraction and its effects on propagation delay Methodology of estimating water vapor attenuation using radiosonde data Knowledge of rain structures and use of climatological patterns to estimate/measure attenuation of rain, snow, fog, and other prevalent atmospheric particles and human-made substances Dual/multifrequency methodology to deal with the influence of clouds on radiometric attenuation Deployment of microwaves to ascertain various tropospheric conditions Composition and characteristics of the troposphere, to help readers fully understand microwave propagation Derived parameters of water, free space propagation, and conditions and variable constituents such as water vapor and vapor pressure, density, and ray bending




Microwave Radiometry and Remote Sensing Applications


Book Description

This book contains papers by well renowned scientists from all over world --- including Eastern Europe --- which were presented during a specialist meeting on microwave radiometry and its applications to remote sensing of the atmosphere and the surface of the earth held in Florence, Italy, in March 1988. The book is divided into five sections, some of which contain review papers which summarize the most recent advances in the field. The sections are: -- Microwave radiometry of the earth's surface -- Dielectric properties of natural materials -- Microwave radiometry of the atmosphere -- Synergism of passive and active microwave remote sensors -- Technology of passive microwave systems




Atmospheric Remote Sensing by Microwave Radiometry


Book Description

A rapidly growing area, remote sensing is crucial to the effort of modeling the earth's atmosphere and collecting such fundamental data as temperature, winds, pressures, water vapor distribution, clouds and other active constituents. This information enables us to test existing models of the atmosphere's energy balance, depletion of the ozone layer, climatic trends and other essential environmental data. Also discussed is the application of microwave remote sensing techniques to the atmospheres of planets other than the earth.




Microwave Radiometry and Remote Sensing of The Environment


Book Description

This volume contains a collection of refereed papers which were presented at the Specialist Meeting on Microwave Radiometry and Remote Sensing of the Environment, 14--17 February 1994, Rome, Italy. The last decade has marked a period of steady advancement and new developments in the observation of the terrestrial environment by passive microwave sensors. Both ground-based and satellite-borne systems have improved their accuracy, stability and spatial resolution and are providing a wealth of quantitative data, which are increasingly being employed in application-oriented projects. The contributions in this volume cover different fields of applications of microwave radiometry, the various observation and retrieval techniques and the recent technological developments. The articles are divided into four sections: measurement of atmospheric water vapor and cloud liquid, measurement of rain, observation of the surface, and new radiometric systems.




Ground-Based Microwave Radiometry and Remote Sensing


Book Description

The ability to effectively monitor the atmosphere on a continuous basis requires remote sensing in microwave. Written for physicists and engineers working in the area of microwave sensing of the atmosphere, Ground-Based Microwave Radiometry and Remote Sensing: Methods and Applications is completely devoted to ground-based remote sensing. This text




Microwave Radiometry and Remote Sensing of the Earth's Surface and Atmosphere


Book Description

This book contains a selection of refereed papers presented at the 6 Specialist Meeting on Microwave Radiometry and Remote Sensing of the Environment held in Florence, Italy on March 15-18, 1999. Over the last two decades, passive microwave remote sensing has made considerable progress, and has achieved significant results in the study of the Earth's surface and atmosphere. Many years of observations with ground-based and satellite-borne sensors have made an important contribution to improving our knowledge of many geophysical processes of the Earth's environment and of global changes. The evolution in microwave radiometers aboard satellites has increased steadily over recent years. At the same time, many investigations have been carried out both to improve the algorithms for the retrieval of geophysical parameters and to develop new technologies. The book is divided into four main sections: three of these are devoted to the observation of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, and the fourth, to future missions and new technologies. The first section deals with the study of sea and land surfaces, and reports recent advances in remote sensing of ocean wind, sea ice, soil moisture and vegetation biomass, including electromagnetic modelling and the assimilation of radiometric data in models of land surface processes. The following two sections are devoted to the measurement of atmospheric quantities which are of fundamental importance in climatology and meteorology, and, since they influence radio-wave propagation, they also impact on several other fields, including geodesy, navigational satellite and radioastronomy. The last section presents an overview of new technologies and plans for future missions.