Exploiting Radar Altimeter Capabilities over the Land

Abstract:
Radar Altimeters are used in several airborne and spaceborne systems providing important information including flight altitude, and several topographic features of the underlying surface, i.e. surface roughness, reflectivity, and even significant wave height over the oceans. Radar Altimeter-2 (RA2) placed on Envisat platform uses several tracking algorithms to improve measurement accuracy over non-ocean surfaces. These set of trackers and retrackers might make it possible to obtain more information about the underlying surface using signal processing methods. Due to its system design and geometry, i.e. satellite altitude, nadir looking narrow beam width antenna, linear frequency modulation and etc., radar altimeter waveforms are hard to interpret and comprehend. A simple yet effective Radar Altimeter Simulator (RAS) has been developed to help understanding the waveforms. This paper includes results of our simulator and comparison of its results with RA2 waveforms.