Airborne passive radiometer for high resolution soil moisture monitoring

该项目建议创建一种测量土壤湿度的新技术。高分辨率土壤水分剖面的准确知识对于可持续的土地和水管理，包括有效的灌溉计划和耕作方法是重要的。提出了一种L、Ku和Ka波段被动式多波段土壤水分测量辐射计。该辐射计包括一个三波段共用孔径天线阵、一个接收电子设备、一个数字控制器和一个数据记录器。阵列天线包括双极化堆叠贴片元件。波束形成网络形成灵活的波束来扫描地面。灵敏的辐射计接收器应用亮度温度降尺度以获得高分辨率。高分辨率被动辐射计将彻底改变机载土壤水分监测，消除机械转向笨重的扫描头。

The project proposes to create a novel technology to measure soil moisture. Accurate knowledge of soil moisture profiles at high resolution is important for sustainable land and water management including efficient irrigation scheduling and cropping practices. A passive multi-band soil moisture-measuring radiometer at L-, Ku- and Ka-bands is proposed. The radiometer comprises a three-band shared aperture antenna array, a receiving electronics, a digital controller and a data logger. The array antenna comprises dual polarised stacked patch elements. Beamforming networks form agile beams to scan the ground. Sensitive radiometer receivers apply brightness temperature downscaling for high resolution. The high-resolution passive radiometer would revolutionise airborne soil moisture monitoring by removing the mechanically steerable bulky and heavy scanheads.