Study of synthetic aperture radar in 2D - 2FS operation over the ocean

Synthetic aperture radar operation (imaging mode) for the European Remote Sensing program is considered. The 2D - 2FS function consists in operating in a low power mode (100 W RF) for 1.5 sec every 15 sec in order to image patches on the sea surface of 5 km by 5 km every 100 km, with the 5 km squares in the center of the beam. The data stream needs to be buffered such that a continuous (300 kbit/sec) data stream is delivered. The impact of such a mode on hardware, especially in terms of mass and power consumption, was studied. Results show that the 2D - 2FS option requires minor changes. One additional dispersive line and one additional box, containing the added hardware for data handling, are necessary. This represents 7 kg more (with redundancy) for payload. The average power consumption in wave mode becomes 150 W.