SBIR PHASE I: A Subsurface Volume Imaging Radar for Polar Region Ice Studies

这个小企业创新研究第一阶段项目描述了利用雷达系统对地球表面和地下物理特性的遥感。它是地球物理科学界的普遍兴趣，对广泛的军事和商业应用很重要。最近，堪萨斯大学的研究人员使用了一种实验性雷达来绘制格陵兰雅各布港冰川的厚度。这种雷达产生了高距离分辨率的冰厚测量结果，但受到了非常粗糙的交叉航迹分辨率的影响。该方案描述了一种新型的最低点成像雷达系统，该系统可以提供几公里深度的冰川和冰山结构和深度的三维体图像。通过利用安装在飞机机翼底部的许多天线元件的共形阵列，我们可以采用数字波束形成技术在交叉航迹方向上产生多达40个波束，每个波束宽度为1.4到3度。沿航迹分辨率将通过非聚焦SAR处理来实现。由该雷达生成的最终体图像将在1至2公里范围内具有30m × 30m × 30m的空间分辨率，采样范围从地表顶到地表以下几公里的地面。潜在的商业应用包括测量极地地区的冰，以及金属物体、危险废物、隧道的地下成像，以及通过树叶探测硬目标。

9560637 Langlois This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I Project describes remote sensing of the physical properties of earth's surface and subsurface with radar systems. It is of generic interest to the geophysical science community and is important to a wide range of military and commercial applications. Recently, an experimental radar was used by researchers from the University of Kansas to map the thickness of the Jacobshavn glacier in Greenland. This radar produced high range resolution measurements of ice thickness but suffered from very coarse cross-track resolution. This proposal describes a novel nadir-looking imaging radar system that can provide three-dimension volume images of the structure and depth of glaciers and icebergs to depths of several km. by utilizing a conformal array of many antenna elements mounted on the underside of an aircraft wing, we can employ digital beamforming techniques to generate up to 40 beams in the cross-track direction, each with a narrow 1.4 to 3 degree beamwidth. Along track resolution will be achieved by unfocused SAR processing. The resultant volume images generated by this radar will have spatial resolution on the order of 30m x 30m x 30m at ranges of 1 to 2 km, sampled from the top surface down to ground level several km below the surface. Potential commercial applications include surveying ice in polar regions, as well as subsurface imaging of metallic objects, hazardous waste, tunnels, and detection of hard targets through foliage.