Characteristics of ocean-reflected short radar pulses with application to altimetry and surface roughness determination

Current work related to geodetic altimetry is summarized. Special emphasis is placed on the effects of pulse length on both altimetry and sea-state estimation. Some discussion is also given of system tradeoff parameters and sea truth requirements to support scattering studies. The problem of analyzing signal characteristics and altimeter waveforms arising from rough surface backscattering is also considered

Tensor-polarized quark and antiquark distribution functions in a spin-one hadron

To understand orbital-angular-momentum contributions is becoming crucial for clarifying nucleon-spin issue in the parton level. Twist-two structure functions b_1 and b_2 for spin-one hadrons could probe orbital-angular-momentum effects, which reflect a different aspect from current studies for the spin-1/2 nucleon, since they should vanish if internal constituents are in the S state. These structure functions are related to tensor structure in spin-one hadrons. Studies of such tensor structure will open a new field of high-energy spin physics. The structure functions b_1 and b_2 are described by tensor-polarized quark and antiquark distributions delta_T-q and delta_T-qbar. Using HERMES data on the b_1 structure function for the deuteron, we made an analysis of extracting the distributions delta_T-q and delta_T-qbar in a simple x-dependent functional form. Optimum distributions are proposed for the tensor-polarized valence and antiquark distribution functions from the analysis. A finite tensor polarization is obtained for antiquarks if we impose a constraint that the first moments of tensor-polarized valence-quark distributions vanish. It is interesting to investigate a physics mechanism to create a finite tensor-polarized antiquark distribution.Comment: 4 pages, LaTeX, 2 eps figures, Phys. Rev. D in pres

Altimeter waveform software design

Techniques are described for preprocessing raw return waveform data from the GEOS-3 radar altimeter. Topics discussed include: (1) general altimeter data preprocessing to be done at the GEOS-3 Data Processing Center to correct altimeter waveform data for temperature calibrations, to convert between engineering and final data units and to convert telemetered parameter quantities to more appropriate final data distribution values: (2) time "tagging" of altimeter return waveform data quantities to compensate for various delays, misalignments and calculational intervals; (3) data processing procedures for use in estimating spacecraft attitude from altimeter waveform sampling gates; and (4) feasibility of use of a ground-based reflector or transponder to obtain in-flight calibration information on GEOS-3 altimeter performance

Ultrasonic calibration device

Device is an instrument for producing known changes in both acoustic absorption and phase velocity. Calibration signal arises from actual change of acoustic parameters, not from electrical simulation. Instrument is able to simulate changes in sensitivity enhancement achieved by use of ultrasonic resonators, which cannot be achieved using electrical calibration techniques

Engineering studies related to geodetic and oceanographic remote sensing using short pulse techniques

For the Skylab S-193 radar altimeter, data processing flow charts and identification of calibration requirements and problem areas for defined S-193 altimeter experiments are presented. An analysis and simulation of the relationship between one particular S-193 measurement and the parameter of interest for determining the sea surface scattering cross-section are considered. For the GEOS-C radar altimeter, results are presented for system analyses pertaining to signal-to-noise ratio, pulse compression threshold behavior, altimeter measurement variance characteristics, desirability of onboard averaging, tracker bandwidth considerations, and statistical character of the altimeter data in relation to harmonic analysis properties of the geodetic signal

Microwave backscattering theory and active remote sensing of the ocean surface

The status is reviewed of electromagnetic scattering theory relative to the interpretation of microwave remote sensing data acquired from spaceborne platforms over the ocean surface. Particular emphasis is given to the assumptions which are either implicit or explicit in the theory. The multiple scale scattering theory developed during this investigation is extended to non-Gaussian surface statistics. It is shown that the important statistic for the case is the probability density function of the small scale heights conditioned on the large scale slopes; this dependence may explain the anisotropic scattering measurements recently obtained with the AAFE Radscat. It is noted that present surface measurements are inadequate to verify or reject the existing scattering theories. Surface measurements are recommended for qualifying sensor data from radar altimeters and scatterometers. Additional scattering investigations are suggested for imaging type radars employing synthetically generated apertures

Development of mathematical models for processing S-193 radar altimeter data

There are no author-identified significant results in this report

Development of mathematical models for processing altimeter data

There are no author-identified significant results in this report

Acquisition of quick-look data from SL-2

There are no author-identified significant results in this report