CBL - Campus del Baix Llobregat

Projecte llegit

Títol: Advanced Interferometer Development for Precise Geostationary Satellite Tracking

Director/a: NICOLÁS ÁLVAREZ, JORGE

Departament: TSC

Títol: Advanced Interferometer Development for Precise Geostationary Satellite Tracking

Data inici oferta: 21-07-2020 Data finalització oferta: 21-03-2021

Estudis d'assignació del projecte:

GR ENG SIS TELECOMUN

GR ENG SIST AEROESP

Tipus: Individual

Lloc de realització: UPC Departament: TSC - Campus Nord (D3)

Segon director/a (UPC): BROQUETAS IBARS, ANTONI

Paraules clau:
interferometry, precise orbit determination, remote sensing, GEOSAR, electronics, hardware

Descripció del contingut i pla d'activitats:
Low Earth Orbit Synthetic Aperture Radars (LEOSAR) present a main drawback regarding their revisit time of several days or weeks. At most, they can only provide an image of the same area of the planet per week. To mitigate this limitation, Geosynchronous Synthetic Aperture Radars (GEOSAR) missions will be able to provide permanent monitoring over wide areas of the planet. GEOSAR presents a main challenge: it requires unprecedented orbit determination precision. We have to demonstrate that we can get this precision before launching any spacecraft. The group has developed a ground interferometer prototype in the UPC-D3 building in order to track non-cooperative geostationary telecommunication satellites. The first experimental demonstration has shown promising results. The student will work in the context of some on-going remote sensing missions: The European Space Agency (ESA) has selected Hydroterra on its call for the tenth Earth Explorer mission. Hydroterra will help scientists unravel the details of the daily water cycle. In the event of a natural disaster, they would be able to predict the development of floods and emergency services will be able to safely evacuate the citizens before the water rise. NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has a keen interest in the presented technique and has contacted us to join their team in an emerging snow remote sensing mission. Goal: The project consists of increasing the baseline of the current ground interferometer in order to decrease the uncertainty of the orbit observables. The student will have to develop a radio link that receives the satellite signal and repeats it towards the receiver with a reliable SNR. This will contribute to the precise orbit determination of remote sensing satellites in geosynchronous orbits.

Overview (resum en anglès):
Low-Earth Orbit Synthetic Aperture Radars (LEOSAR) can only provide one image of the same area of the planet at most every 10-15 days. In consequence, this is a great disadvantage in terms of revisit time.\smallskip Hence, Geosynchronous Synthetic Aperture Radars (GEOSAR) provide continuous illumination, which potentially diminish the existing limitation. By providing a widespread and continuous monitoring over large areas of the planet, GEOSAR commensurate high resolution observations (in space and time). In this way, they initialize and validate predictions that enhance the understanding of the diurnal water cycle and related social concerns such as floods, landslides and water resources. Likewise, GEOSAR presents a main challenge: it requires unprecedented orbit determination precision. \smallskip Before launching any spacecraft, it is necessary to ensure a set level of precision. Following the guidelines given by the previous observations, a prototype of a ground-based interferometer is developed in the UPC-D3 building, which tracks non-cooperative geostationary telecommunications satellites.\smallskip After the first experimental demonstrations, whose results have been promising, it is decided to continue working in the context of some remote sensing missions which are currently in progress:\smallskip The European Space Agency (ESA) has selected Hydroterra on its call for the tenth Earth Explorer mission. Hydroterra will help scientists to unravel the details of the daily water cycle. In the event of a natural disaster, they would be able to predict the development of floods and emergency services will be able to safely evacuate the citizens before the water rises. NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has a keen interest in the presented technique and has contacted us to join their team in an emerging snow remote sensing mission.\smallskip The purpose of the project is to increase the baseline of the current ground-based interferometer to minimize the uncertainty of the observables in orbit. Thus, a radio link will have to be developed in order to receive the signal from the satellite together with a repeater module that will allow the signal to be propagated towards the receiver with a reliable signal-to-noise ratio (SNR).\smallskip The achievements made throughout the project will contribute to the precise orbit determination of remote sensing satellites in geosynchronous orbits (GEO).