Technology Development for a Future Spaceborne Cloud and Precipitation Imaging Radar

The NASA Earth Science Decadal Survey (DS) Aerosol, Cloud and Ecosystems (ACE) mission calls for a dual-band cloud radar (W band 94 GHz and Ka-band 35 GHz) for geospatial measurements of cloud microphysical properties. Meanwhile, a tri-band spaceborne radar concept (W band 94 GHz, Ka-band 35 GHz, and Ku-band 14 GHz) is being considered by the cloud and precipitation science communities as a follow-on to the recent Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission. This presentation will give an overview of the technology development efforts at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) and at Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems (NGES) through projects funded by the NASA Earth Science Technology Office (ESTO) Instrument Incubator Program (IIP). Our primary objective of these projects is to advance the key enabling technologies for the next generation spaceborne cloud and precipitation radar to provide unprecedented, simultaneous multi-frequency measurements that will enhance understanding of the effects of clouds and precipitation and their interaction on Earth climate change. Our research has been focused on (1) investigating architectures that provide tri-band shared-aperture capability; (2) advancing the development of the Ka band active electronically scanned array (AESA) transmit/receive (T/R) module design including the GaN power amplifier MMIC, the GaAs multi-function and low noise amplifier MMICs, the Power Controller/Gate Regulator ASIC, and the T/R circulator; (3) development of a novel Frequency Diversity Pulse Pair (FDPP) technique for spaceborne Doppler measurements and advancing the technology readiness of radar backend electronics.