Transponder calibration of the Envisat RA-2 altimeter Ku band sigma naught

Although the history of spaceborne altimeters goes back to the early seventies, the absolute calibration of the backscattering coefficient has never been deeply investigated. This information has been primarily used to infer the wind speed via an empirical model, and the intercalibration among different satellite altimeters has revealed to be suitable for this purpose, being the wind retrieval based on an empirical relationship. As far as Ku band system is concerned, the sigma naught absolute calibration of the Envisat altimeter (RA-2) has been performed using an active reference target provided by a transponder. This has been exploited during the 6-month Commissioning phase to generate early calibration results. In order to monitor the RA-2 backscatter calibration during the Envisat lifetime, a continuous calibration effort has been carried out by operating the transponder as much as possible. This paper aims to review the entire effort for calibrating the RA-2 sigma naught measurements, which lasted for almost seven years. It presents in detail the adopted methodology and the final outcome of the activity, providing the users with the correction (bias) to get the calibrated sigma naught and analyzing its stability during almost the entire Envisat lifetime. Specifically, it is concluded that the RA-2 backscatter measurements were quite stable, even if a bias of about 1 dB should be considered with respect to the actually released product. Some small changes in the bias as function of time can be identified during most of the Envisat lifetime, consisting in a slight increase in the first two years, followed by a more stable period and a final drop observed at the end of 2009, until the conclusion of the calibration activity (corresponding to the change in Envisat orbit).     

Detection of Envisat RA2/ICE-1 retracked radar altimetry bias over the Amazon basin rivers using GPS

Altimetry is now routinely used to monitor stage variations over rivers, including in the Amazon basin. It is desirable for hydrologic studies to be able to combine altimetry from different satellite missions with other hydrogeodesy datasets such as leveled gauges and watershed topography. One requirement is to accurately determine altimetry bias, which could be different for river studies from the altimetry calibrated for deep ocean or lake applications. In this study, we estimate the bias in the Envisat ranges derived from the ICE-1 waveform retracking, which are nowadays widely used in hydrologic applications. As a reference, we use an extensive dataset of altitudes of gauge zeros measured by GPS collocated at the gauges. The thirty-nine gauges are spread along the major tributaries of the Amazon basin. The methodology consists in jointly modeling the vertical bias and spatial and temporal slope variations between altimetry series located upstream and downstream of each gauge. The resulting bias of the Envisat ICE-1 retracked altimetry over rivers is 1.044 ± 0.212 m, revealing a significant departure from other Envisat calibrations or from the Jason-2 ICE-1 calibration.     

Long term changes of altimeter range and geophysical corrections at altimetry calibration sites

Accurate sea level trend determination is fundamentally related to calibration of both the instrument as well as to investigate if there are linear trends in the set of standard geophysical and range corrections applied to the sea level observations. Long term changes in range corrections can leak into the observed sea level record and be interpreted as part of the sea level trend. Particularly if these exhibit anomalous trend close to the satellite calibration sites.     

火星多光谱相机的地面几何标定研究

随着航空航天技术的飞速发展,作为地球近邻的火星成为当今国际空间大国的主要研究目标。为完成火星巡视区形貌和地质探测任务,可直接使用多光谱相机获取的高分辨率真彩色图像作为观测手段。为寻找着陆点,火星多光谱相机应具备精确定位的测绘功能,因此需进行几何标定估计其内方位元素。通过张正友标定算法提供初值,然后以改进的Heikkil?算法完成几何标定,经过分析标定结果的不确定度,探究实验误差来源,提出改进方法,最终获得满足要求的标定参数,为实现图像融合、三维重建等计算机视觉领域奠定坚实的基础。     

Evaluation of SARAL/AltiKa performance using GNSS/IMU equipped buoy in Sajafi,Imam Hassan and Kangan Ports

Performance of SARAL/AltiKa mission has been evaluated within 2016 altimeter calibration/validation framework in Persian Gulf through three campaigns conducted in the offshore waters of Sajafi, Imam Hassan and Kangan Ports, while the altimeter overflew the passes 470, 111 and 25 on 13 Feb, 7 March and 17 June 2016, respectively. As the preparation, a lightweight buoy was equipped with a GNSS receiver/choke-ring antenna and a MEMS-based IMU to measure independent datasets in the field operations. To obtain accurate sea surface height (SSH) time series, the offset of the onboard antenna from the equilibrium sea level was predetermined through surveying operations as the buoy was deploying in the onshore waters of Kangan Port. Accordingly, the double-difference carrier phase observations have been processed via the Bernese GPS Software v. 5.0 so as to provide the GNSS-derived time series at the comparison points of the calibration campaigns, once the disturbing effects due to the platform tilt and heave have been eliminated. Owing to comparing of the SSH time series and the associating altimetry 1?Hz GDR-T datasets, the calibration/validation of the SARAL/AltiKa has been performed in the both cases of radiometer and ECMWF wet troposphere corrections so as to identify potential land contamination. An agreement of the present findings in comparison with those attained in other international calibrations sites confirms the promising feasibility of Persian Gulf as a new dedicated site for calibration/validation of ongoing and future altimetry missions.     

用于EMI测量接收机脉冲响应校准的标准脉冲信号产生方法

EMI测量接收机作为电磁兼容测试中的关键仪器应用越来越广泛,但目前该类仪器的脉冲响应校准所用的标准源完全依赖于进口,国内尚无可替代的标准脉冲信号产生器。介绍一种用于EMI测量接收机脉冲响应校准的标准脉冲信号产生方法,首先建立标准脉冲信号的参数模型并对其进行数值分析和仿真,验证其符合CISPR 16-1-1标准的要求,之后搭建实验系统,利用标准脉冲信号生成软件控制任意脉冲信号发生器输出标准脉冲信号并对其进行补偿修正,获得符合CISPR 16-1-1标准要求的标准脉冲信号,该信号可用于EMI测量接收机脉冲响应的校准。