Abstract:
Concepts for future spaceborne radar systems are being developed which rely on
the transmitter and receiver(s) being carried on separate spacecraft. The
potential advantages include lower cost than current spaceborne radars and
improved measurement capability. This paper reviews two currently proposed
systems: GNSS reflectometry (GNSS-R) and a geosynchronous synthetic aperture
radar constellation (GeoSAR). GNSS-R uses reflections of signals from GPS (and
Galileo when available) to measure the height and state of the ocean surface.
The receiver is typically in a low Earth obit (LEO) and provides global
coverage. GeoSAR uses a radar receiver in geosynchronous orbit (slightly
displaced from geostationary but still with a period of 1 day). The radar sees a
fixed region of the Earth and is able to integrate signals over long periods to
obtain a satisfactory signal-to-noise ratio. If several receiver spacecraft are
used simultaneously the time to obtain an image can be reduced in proportion to
the number of spacecraft used. The principles of these two systems are described
and then requirements applying to the system dynamics and control are derived.
For GNSS-R the requirements are relatively easy to achieve (coarse pointing and
only basic orbit control). GeoSAR’s requirements are more demanding although the
environmental disturbances at geosynchronous orbit height are significantly
smaller than in LEO. For GeoSAR the most demanding requirement is the need for
centimetre-level orbit measurements to allow aperture synthesis to be implemente
