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NASA NTRS2008

Quasi-Optical Transmission Line for 94-GHz Radar

A quasi-optical transmission line (QOTL) has been developed as a low-loss transmission line for a spaceborne cloudobserving radar instrument that operates at a nominal frequency of 94 GHz. This QOTL could also readily be redesigned for use in terrestrial millimeter-wave radar systems and millimeter-wave imaging systems. In the absence of this or another lowloss transmission line, it would be necessary to use a waveguide transmission line in the original radar application. Unfortunately, transmission losses increase and power-handling capacities of waveguides generally decrease with frequency, such that at 94 GHz, the limitation on transmitting power and the combined transmission and reception losses (greater than 5 dB) in a waveguide transmission line previously considered for the original application would be unacceptable. The QOTL functions as a very-lowloss, three-port circulator. The QOTL includes a shaped input mirror that can be rotated to accept 94-GHz transmitter power from either of two high-power amplifiers. Inside the QOTL, the transmitter power takes the form of a linearly polarized beam radiated from a feed horn. This beam propagates through a system of mirrors, each of which refocuses the beam to minimize diffraction losses. A magnetically biased ferrite disc is placed at one of the foci to utilize the Faraday effect to rotate the polarization of the beam by 45 degrees. The beam is then transmitted via an antenna system. The radar return (scatter from clouds, and/or reflections from other objects) is collected by the same antenna and propagates through the Faraday rotator in the reverse of the direction of propagation of the transmitted beam. In the Faraday rotator, the polarization of the received signal is rotated a further 45 degrees, so that upon emerging from the Faraday rotator, the received beam is polarized at 90 with respect to the transmitted beam. The transmitted and received signals are then separated by a wire-grid polarizer.

Perez, Raul M.↗
NASA NTRS2008

Customizable Digital Receivers for Radar

Compact, highly customizable digital receivers are being developed for the system described in 'Radar Interferometer for Topographic Mapping of Glaciers and Ice Sheets' (NPO-43962), NASA Tech Briefs, Vol. 31, No. 7 (August 2007), page 72. The receivers are required to operate in unison, sampling radar returns received by the antenna elements in a digital beam-forming (DBF) mode. The design of these receivers could also be adapted to commercial radar systems. At the time of reporting the information for this article, there were no commercially available digital receivers capable of satisfying all of the operational requirements and compact enough to be mounted directly on the antenna elements. A provided figure depicts the overall system of which the digital receivers are parts. Each digital receiver includes an analog-to-digital converter (ADC), a demultiplexer (DMUX), and a field-programmable gate array (FPGA). The ADC effects 10-bit band-pass sampling of input signals having frequencies up to 3.5 GHz. The input samples are demultiplexed at a user-selectable rate of 1:2 or 1:4, then buffered in part of the FPGA that functions as a first-in/first-out (FIFO) memory. Another part of the FPGA serves as a controller for the ADC, DMUX, and FIFO memory and as an interface between (1) the rest of the receiver and (2) a front-panel data port (FPDP) bus, which is an industry-standard parallel data bus that has a high data-rate capability and multichannel configuration suitable for DBF. Still other parts of the FPGA in each receiver perform signal-processing functions. The digital receivers can be configured to operate in a stand-alone mode, or in a multichannel mode as needed for DBF. The customizability of the receiver makes it applicable to a broad range of system architectures. The capability for operation of receivers in either a stand-alone or a DBF mode enables the use of the receivers in an unprecedentedly wide variety of radar systems.

Moller, Delwyn↗
NASA NTRS2008

ARMOR Dual-Polarimetric Radar Observations of Tornadic Debris Signatures

During the Super-Tuesday tornado outbreak of 5-6 February 2008, two EF-4 tornadoes occurred in Northern Alabama within 75 km range of the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) Advanced Radar for Meteorological and Operational Research (ARMOR, C-band dual-polarimetric). This study will present an analysis of ARMOR radar-indicated dual-polarimetric tornadic debris signatures. The debris signatures were associated with spatially-confined large decreases in the copolar correlation coefficient (rho(hv)hv) that were embedded within broader mesocyclone "hook" signatures. These debris signatures were most obviously manifest during the F-3 to F-4 intensity stages of the tornado(s) and extended to altitudes of approximately 3 km. The rho(hv) signatures of the tornadic debris were the most easily distinguished relative to other polarimetric and radial velocity parameters (e.g., associated with large hail and/or the incipient mesocyclone). Based on our analysis, and consistent with the small number of studies found in the literature, we conclude that dual-polarimetric radar data offer at least the possibility for enhancing specificity and confidence in the process of issuing tornado warnings based only on radar detection of threatening circulation features.

Petersen, W. A,↗
NASA NTRS2008

Retrieval of Snow and Rain From Combined X- and W-B and Airborne Radar Measurements

Two independent airborne dual-wavelength techniques, based on nadir measurements of radar reflectivity factors and Doppler velocities, respectively, are investigated with respect to their capability of estimating microphysical properties of hydrometeors. The data used to investigate the methods are taken from the ER-2 Doppler radar (X-band) and Cloud Radar System (W-band) airborne Doppler radars during the Cirrus Regional Study of Tropical Anvils and Cirrus Layers-Florida Area Cirrus Experiment campaign in 2002. Validity is assessed by the degree to which the methods produce consistent retrievals of the microphysics. For deriving snow parameters, the reflectivity-based technique has a clear advantage over the Doppler-velocity-based approach because of the large dynamic range in the dual-frequency ratio (DFR) with respect to the median diameter Do and the fact that the difference in mean Doppler velocity at the two frequencies, i.e., the differential Doppler velocity (DDV), in snow is small relative to the measurement errors and is often not uniquely related to Do. The DFR and DDV can also be used to independently derive Do in rain. At W-band, the DFR-based algorithms are highly sensitive to attenuation from rain, cloud water, and water vapor. Thus, the retrieval algorithms depend on various assumptions regarding these components, whereas the DDV-based approach is unaffected by attenuation. In view of the difficulties and ambiguities associated with the attenuation correction at W-band, the DDV approach in rain is more straightforward and potentially more accurate than the DFR method.

Liao, Liang↗
NASA NTRS2010

Data Acquisition System for Multi-Frequency Radar Flight Operations Preparation

A three-channel data acquisition system was developed for the NASA Multi-Frequency Radar (MFR) system. The system is based on a commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) industrial PC (personal computer) and two dual-channel 14-bit digital receiver cards. The decimated complex envelope representations of the three radar signals are passed to the host PC via the PCI bus, and then processed in parallel by multiple cores of the PC CPU (central processing unit). The innovation is this parallelization of the radar data processing using multiple cores of a standard COTS multi-core CPU. The data processing portion of the data acquisition software was built using autonomous program modules or threads, which can run simultaneously on different cores. A master program module calculates the optimal number of processing threads, launches them, and continually supplies each with data. The benefit of this new parallel software architecture is that COTS PCs can be used to implement increasingly complex processing algorithms on an increasing number of radar range gates and data rates. As new PCs become available with higher numbers of CPU cores, the software will automatically utilize the additional computational capacity.

Leachman, Jonathan↗
NASA NTRS2010

High-resolution three-dimensional imaging radar

A three-dimensional imaging radar operating at high frequency e.g., 670 GHz, is disclosed. The active target illumination inherent in radar solves the problem of low signal power and narrow-band detection by using submillimeter heterodyne mixer receivers. A submillimeter imaging radar may use low phase-noise synthesizers and a fast chirper to generate a frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) waveform. Three-dimensional images are generated through range information derived for each pixel scanned over a target. A peak finding algorithm may be used in processing for each pixel to differentiate material layers of the target. Improved focusing is achieved through a compensation signal sampled from a point source calibration target and applied to received signals from active targets prior to FFT-based range compression to extract and display high-resolution target images. Such an imaging radar has particular application in detecting concealed weapons or contraband.

Cooper, Ken B.↗
NASA NTRS2010

Contribution of Small-Scale Correlated Fluctuations of Microstructural Properties of a Spatially Extended Geophysical Target Under the Assessment of Radar Backscatter

The study of the collective effects of radar scattering from an aggregation of discrete scatterers randomly distributed in a space is important for better understanding the origin of the backscatter from spatially extended geophysical targets (SEGT). We consider the microstructure irregularities of a SEGT as the essential factor that affect radar backscatter. To evaluate their contribution this study uses the "slice" approach: particles close to the front of incident radar wave are considered to reflect incident electromagnetic wave coherently. The radar equation for a SEGT is derived. The equation includes contributions to the total backscatter from correlated small-scale fluctuations of the slice's reflectivity. The correlation contribution changes in accordance with an earlier proposed idea by Smith (1964) based on physical consideration. The slice approach applied allows parameterizing the features of the SEGT's inhomogeneities.

Yurchak, Boris S.↗
NASA NTRS2011

The New Meteor Radar at Penn State: Design and First Observations

In an effort to provide new and improved meteor radar sensing capabilities, Penn State has been developing advanced instruments and technologies for future meteor radars, with primary objectives of making such instruments more capable and more cost effective in order to study the basic properties of the global meteor flux, such as average mass, velocity, and chemical composition. Using low-cost field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), combined with open source software tools, we describe a design methodology enabling one to develop state-of-the art radar instrumentation, by developing a generalized instrumentation core that can be customized using specialized output stage hardware. Furthermore, using object-oriented programming (OOP) techniques and open-source tools, we illustrate a technique to provide a cost-effective, generalized software framework to uniquely define an instrument s functionality through a customizable interface, implemented by the designer. The new instrument is intended to provide instantaneous profiles of atmospheric parameters and climatology on a daily basis throughout the year. An overview of the instrument design concepts and some of the emerging technologies developed for this meteor radar are presented.

Urbina, J.↗
NASA NTRS2011

HIWRAP Radar Development for High-Altitude Operation on the NASA Global Hawk and ER-2

The NASA High-Altitude Imaging Wind and Rain Airborne Profiler (HIWRAP) is a solid-state transmitter-based, dual-frequency (Ka- and Ku-band), dual-beam (30 degree and 40 degree incidence angle), conical scan Doppler radar system, designed for operation on the NASA high-altitude (20 km) aircrafts, such as the Global Hawk Unmanned Aerial System (UAS). Supported by the NASA Instrument Incubator Program (IIP), HIWRAP was developed to provide high spatial and temporal resolution 3D wind and reflectivity data for the research of tropical cyclone and severe storms. With the simultaneous measurements at both Ku- and Ka-band two different incidence angles, HIWRAP is capable of imaging Doppler winds and volume backscattering from clouds and precipitation associated with tropical storms. In addition, HIWRAP is able to obtain ocean surface backscatter measurements for surface wind retrieval using an approach similar to QuikScat. There are three key technology advances for HIWRAP. Firstly, a compact dual-frequency, dual-beam conical scan antenna system was designed to fit the tight size and weight constraints of the aircraft platform. Secondly, The use of solid state transmitters along with a novel transmit waveform and pulse compression scheme has resulted in a system with improved performance to size, weight, and power ratios compared to typical tube based Doppler radars currently in use for clouds and precipitation measurements. Tube based radars require high voltage power supply and pressurization of the transmitter and radar front end that complicates system design and implementation. Solid state technology also significantly improves system reliability. Finally, HIWRAP technology advances also include the development of a high-speed digital receiver and processor to handle the complex receiving pulse sequences and high data rates resulting from multi receiver channels and conical scanning. This paper describes HIWRAP technology development for dual-frequency operation at high-altitudes using low peak power transmitters and pulse compression. The hardware will be described along with the methods and concepts for the system design. Finally, we will present recent preliminary results from flights on the NASA Global Hawk in support of the NASA Genesis and Rapid Intensification Processes (GRIP) field campaign, and on the NASA ER-2 as fixed nadir pointing mode for the NASA Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) ground validation (GV) mission - Midlatitude Continental Convective Cloud Experiment (MC3E)

Li, Lihua↗
NASA NTRS2011

Onboard Interferometric SAR Processor for the Ka-Band Radar Interferometer (KaRIn)

An interferometric synthetic aperture radar (SAR) onboard processor concept and algorithm has been developed for the Ka-band radar interferometer (KaRIn) instrument on the Surface and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission. This is a mission- critical subsystem that will perform interferometric SAR processing and multi-look averaging over the oceans to decrease the data rate by three orders of magnitude, and therefore enable the downlink of the radar data to the ground. The onboard processor performs demodulation, range compression, coregistration, and re-sampling, and forms nine azimuth squinted beams. For each of them, an interferogram is generated, including common-band spectral filtering to improve correlation, followed by averaging to the final 1 1-km ground resolution pixel. The onboard processor has been prototyped on a custom FPGA-based cPCI board, which will be part of the radar s digital subsystem. The level of complexity of this technology, dictated by the implementation of interferometric SAR processing at high resolution, the extremely tight level of accuracy required, and its implementation on FPGAs are unprecedented at the time of this reporting for an onboard processor for flight applications.

Esteban-Fernandez, Daniel↗
NASA NTRS2011

Initial Observations of Lunar Impact Melts and Ejecta Flows with the Mini-RF Radar

The Mini-RF radar on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter's spacecraft has revealed a great variety of crater ejecta flow and impact melt deposits, some of which were not observed in prior radar imaging. The craters Tycho and Glushko have long melt flows that exhibit variations in radar backscatter and circular polarization ratio along the flow. Comparison with optical imaging reveals that these changes are caused by features commonly seen in terrestrial lava flows, such as rafted plates, pressure ridges, and ponding. Small (less than 20 km) sized craters also show a large variety of features, including melt flows and ponds. Two craters have flow features that may be ejecta flows caused by entrained debris flowing across the surface rather than by melted rock. The circular polarization ratios (CPRs) of the impact melt flows are typically very high; even ponded areas have CPR values between 0.7-1.0. This high CPR suggests that deposits that appear smooth in optical imagery may be rough at centimeter- and decimeter- scales. In some places, ponds and flows are visible with no easily discernable source crater. These melt deposits may have come from oblique impacts that are capable of ejecting melted material farther downrange. They may also be associated with older, nearby craters that no longer have a radar-bright proximal ejecta blanket. The observed morphology of the lunar crater flows has implications for similar features observed on Venus. In particular, changes in backscatter along many of the ejecta flows are probably caused by features typical of lava flows.

Carter, Lynn M.↗
NASA NTRS2011

Experiment in Onboard Synthetic Aperture Radar Data Processing

Single event upsets (SEUs) are a threat to any computing system running on hardware that has not been physically radiation hardened. In addition to mandating the use of performance-limited, hardened heritage equipment, prior techniques for dealing with the SEU problem often involved hardware-based error detection and correction (EDAC). With limited computing resources, software- based EDAC, or any more elaborate recovery methods, were often not feasible. Synthetic aperture radars (SARs), when operated in the space environment, are interesting due to their relevance to NASAs objectives, but problematic in the sense of producing prodigious amounts of raw data. Prior implementations of the SAR data processing algorithm have been too slow, too computationally intensive, and require too much application memory for onboard execution to be a realistic option when using the type of heritage processing technology described above. This standard C-language implementation of SAR data processing is distributed over many cores of a Tilera Multicore Processor, and employs novel Radiation Hardening by Software (RHBS) techniques designed to protect the component processes (one per core) and their shared application memory from the sort of SEUs expected in the space environment. The source code includes calls to Tilera APIs, and a specialized Tilera compiler is required to produce a Tilera executable. The compiled application reads input data describing the position and orientation of a radar platform, as well as its radar-burst data, over time and writes out processed data in a form that is useful for analysis of the radar observations.

Holland, Matthew↗
NASA NTRS2011

Forest Biomass Mapping From Lidar and Radar Synergies

The use of lidar and radar instruments to measure forest structure attributes such as height and biomass at global scales is being considered for a future Earth Observation satellite mission, DESDynI (Deformation, Ecosystem Structure, and Dynamics of Ice). Large footprint lidar makes a direct measurement of the heights of scatterers in the illuminated footprint and can yield accurate information about the vertical profile of the canopy within lidar footprint samples. Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is known to sense the canopy volume, especially at longer wavelengths and provides image data. Methods for biomass mapping by a combination of lidar sampling and radar mapping need to be developed. In this study, several issues in this respect were investigated using aircraft borne lidar and SAR data in Howland, Maine, USA. The stepwise regression selected the height indices rh50 and rh75 of the Laser Vegetation Imaging Sensor (LVIS) data for predicting field measured biomass with a R(exp 2) of 0.71 and RMSE of 31.33 Mg/ha. The above-ground biomass map generated from this regression model was considered to represent the true biomass of the area and used as a reference map since no better biomass map exists for the area. Random samples were taken from the biomass map and the correlation between the sampled biomass and co-located SAR signature was studied. The best models were used to extend the biomass from lidar samples into all forested areas in the study area, which mimics a procedure that could be used for the future DESDYnI Mission. It was found that depending on the data types used (quad-pol or dual-pol) the SAR data can predict the lidar biomass samples with R2 of 0.63-0.71, RMSE of 32.0-28.2 Mg/ha up to biomass levels of 200-250 Mg/ha. The mean biomass of the study area calculated from the biomass maps generated by lidar- SAR synergy 63 was within 10% of the reference biomass map derived from LVIS data. The results from this study are preliminary, but do show the potential of the combined use of lidar samples and radar imagery for forest biomass mapping. Various issues regarding lidar/radar data synergies for biomass mapping are discussed in the paper.

Sun, Guoqing↗
NASA NTRS2012

Experimental Investigation into the Radar Anomalies on the Surface of Venus

Radar mapping of thc surface of Venus shows areas of high reflectivity (low emissivity) in the Venusian highlands at altitudes between 2.5-4.75 kilometers. The origin of the radar anomalies found in the Venusian highlands remains unclear. Most explanations of the potential causes for these radar anomalies come from theoretical work. Previous studies suggest increased surface roughness or materials with higher dielectric constants as well as surface atmospheric interactions. Several possible candidates of high-dielectric materials are tellurium) ferroelectric materials, and lead or bismuth sulfides. While previous studies have been influential in determining possible sources for the Venus anomalies, only a very few hypotheses have been verified via experimentation. This work intends to experimentally constrain the source of the radar anomalies on Venus. This study proposes to investigate four possible materials that could potentially cause the high reflectivities on the surface of Venus and tests their behavior under simulated Venusian conditions.

Kohler, E.↗
NASA NTRS2012

Evaluation of Cloud Microphysics Simulated using a Meso-Scale Model Coupled with a Spectral Bin Microphysical Scheme through Comparison with Observation Data by Ship-Borne Doppler and Space-Borne W-Band Radars

Equivalent radar reflectivity factors (Ze) measured by W-band radars are directly compared with the corresponding values calculated from a three-dimensional non-hydrostatic meso-scale model coupled with a spectral-bin-microphysical (SBM) scheme for cloud. Three case studies are the objects of this research: one targets a part of ship-borne observation using 95 GHz Doppler radar over the Pacific Ocean near Japan in May 2001; other two are aimed at two short segments of space-borne observation by the cloud profiling radar on CloudSat in November 2006. The numerical weather prediction (NWP) simulations reproduce general features of vertical structures of Ze and Doppler velocity. A main problem in the reproducibility is an overestimation of Ze in ice cloud layers. A frequency analysis shows a strong correlation between ice water contents (IWC) and Ze in the simulation; this characteristic is similar to those shown in prior on-site studies. From comparing with the empirical correlations by the prior studies, the simulated Ze is overestimated than the corresponding values in the studies at the same IWC. Whereas the comparison of Doppler velocities suggests that large-size snowflakes are necessary for producing large velocities under the freezing level and hence rules out the possibility that an overestimation of snow size causes the overestimation of Ze. Based on the results of several sensitivity tests, we conclude that the source of the overestimation is a bias in the microphysical calculation of Ze or an overestimation of IWC. To identify the source of the problems needs further validation research with other follow-up observations.

Iguchi, T.↗
NASA NTRS2013

Compact Radar Transceiver with Included Calibration

The Digital Beamforming Synthetic Aperture Radar (DBSAR) is an eight-channel phased array radar system that employs solid-state radar transceivers, a microstrip patch antenna, and a reconfigurable waveform generator and processor unit. The original DBSAR transceiver design utilizes connectorized electronic components that tend to be physically large and heavy. To achieve increased functionality in a smaller volume, PCB (printed circuit board) transceivers were designed to replace the large connectorized transceivers. One of the most challenging problems designing the transceivers in a PCB format was achieving proper performance in the calibration path. For a radar loop-back calibration path, a portion of the transmit signal is coupled out of the antenna feed and fed back into the receiver. This is achieved using passive components for stability and repeatability. Some signal also leaks through the receive path. As these two signal paths are correlated via an unpredictable phase, the leakage through the receive path during transmit must be 30 dB below the calibration path. For DBSAR s design, this requirement called for a 100-dB isolation in the receiver path during transmit. A total of 16 solid-state L-band transceivers on a PCB format were designed. The transceivers include frequency conversion stages, T/R switching, and a calibration path capable of measuring the transmit power-receiver gain product during transmit for pulse-by-pulse calibration or matched filtering. In particular, this calibration path achieves 100-dB isolation between the transmitted signal and the low-noise amplifier through the use of a switching network and a section of physical walls achieving attenuation of radiated leakage. The transceivers were designed in microstrip PCBs with lumped elements and individually packaged components for compactness. Each transceiver was designed on a single PCB with a custom enclosure providing interior walls and compartments to isolate transceiver subsystems from radiated interference. The enclosure also acts as a heat sink for the voltage regulators and power amplifiers inside the system. The PCB transceiver design produces transmit pulses of 2 W with an arbitrary duty cycle. Each transceiver is fed by an external 120-MHz signal transmit and two 1,140-MHz local oscillator signals. The received signal is amplified and down-converted to 120 MHz and is fed to the data processor. The transceiver dimensions are approximately 3.5 11.5 0.6 in. (9 29 1.5 cm). The PCB transceiver design reduces the volume and weight of the DBSAR instrument while maintaining the functionality found in the original design. Both volume and weight are critical for airborne and flight remote sensing instrumentation.

McLinden, Matthew↗
NASA NTRS2013

Forward-Looking IED Detector Ground Penetrating Radar

There have been many developments of mine or metal detectors based on ground penetrating radar techniques, usually in hand-held or rover-mounted devices. In most mine or metal detector applications, conditions are in a stationary mode and detection speed is not an important factor. A novel, forward-looking, stepped-frequency ground penetrating radar (GPR) has been developed with a capability to detect improvised explosive devices (IEDs) at vehicular speeds of 15 to 20 mph (24 to 32 km/h), 10 to 20 m ahead of the vehicle, to ensure adequate time for response. The GPR system employs two horn antennas (1.7 to 2.6 GHz, 20 dBi) as transmit and receive. The detector system features a user-friendly instantaneous display on a laptop PC and is a low-power-consumption (3 W) compact system with minimal impact on vehicle operations. In practice, the whole GPR system and a laptop PC can be powered by plugging into a cigarette lighter of a vehicle. The stepped-frequency continuous-wave (CW) radar scans frequency from 1.7 to 2.6 GHz in 1,000 steps of 0.9 MHz, with the full frequency scan in 60 ms. The GPR uses a bi-static configuration with one horn antenna used as a transmitter and the other used as a receiver so that isolation between transmitter and receiver is improved. Since the horn antennas (20 dBi) are mounted on the roof of a vehicle at a shallow inclination angle (15 to 25 with respect to horizontal), there is a first-order reduction in ground reflection so that a significant amount of the total reflected power received by the GPR comes from the scattering of RF energy off of buried objects. The stepped-frequency technique works by transmitting a tone at a particular frequency, while the received signal is mixed with the transmitted tone. As a result, the output of the mixer produces a signal that indicates the strength of the received signal and the extent to which it is in phase or out of phase with the transmitted tone. By taking measurements of the phase relationship between the transmitted and received signals over a wide frequency range, an interference pattern is produced showing all target reflections. When a Fourier transform is performed on this pattern, the result is a time-domain representation of targets. Among the advantages of this technique over impulse radar is the ability to transmit and receive much more total energy, and to use non-damped, highly focused horn antennas. The novelty of the IED detector GPR has been achieved by miniaturization of GPR electronics (single electronics board, 10x5x2 cm), low power consumption (3 W), faster signal processing capability, and minimal impact on vehicle operations.

Kim, Soon Sam↗
NASA NTRS2012

Microwave Properties of Ice-Phase Hydrometeors for Radar and Radiometers: Sensitivity to Model Assumptions

A simplied framework is presented for assessing the qualitative sensitivities of computed microwave properties, satellite brightness temperatures, and radar reflectivities to assumptions concerning the physical properties of ice-phase hydrometeors. Properties considered included the shape parameter of a gamma size distribution andthe melted-equivalent mass median diameter D0, the particle density, dielectric mixing formula, and the choice of complex index of refraction for ice. We examine these properties at selected radiometer frequencies of 18.7, 36.5, 89.0, and 150.0 GHz; and radar frequencies at 2.8, 13.4, 35.6, and 94.0 GHz consistent with existing and planned remote sensing instruments. Passive and active microwave observables of ice particles arefound to be extremely sensitive to the melted-equivalent mass median diameter D0 ofthe size distribution. Similar large sensitivities are found for variations in the ice vol-ume fraction whenever the geometric mass median diameter exceeds approximately 1/8th of the wavelength. At 94 GHz the two-way path integrated attenuation is potentially large for dense compact particles. The distribution parameter mu has a relatively weak effect on any observable: less than 1-2 K in brightness temperature and up to 2.7 dB difference in the effective radar reflectivity. Reversal of the roles of ice and air in the MaxwellGarnett dielectric mixing formula leads to a signicant change in both microwave brightness temperature (10 K) and radar reflectivity (2 dB). The choice of Warren (1984) or Warren and Brandt (2008) for the complex index of refraction of ice can produce a 3%-4% change in the brightness temperature depression.

Microwave properties↗