Development and Optimization of Airborne FMCW Radars for High-Resolution Snow Depth Measurements

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dc.contributorO'Neill, Charles
dc.contributorLarson, Jordan
dc.contributorMulani, Sameer
dc.contributorTaylor, Drew
dc.contributor.advisorGogineni, S. Prasad
dc.contributor.authorKolpuke, Shriniwas
dc.date.accessioned2023-11-30T15:21:27Z
dc.date.available9/1/2028
dc.date.available2023-11-30T15:21:27Z
dc.date.issued2023
dc.descriptionElectronic Thesis or Dissertationen_US
dc.description.abstractOver one-sixth of Earth's population relies on glaciers and seasonal snowpacks for freshwater supply. In the United States, the Colorado River Basin (CRB) gets 75% of its water from snow melt; it constitutes the water supply of 40 million people in seven states, two countries, and 5.5 million irrigated acres of land. An ultra-wideband (UWB) radar enabling snowpack information production in near-real-time would greatly aid in planning and effectively distributing this precious resource.The primary objective of this research is to design, develop, and optimize UWB FMCW (Frequency-Modulated Continuous-Wave) radar systems for airborne snow measurements to generate data products in near-real-time for operational applications. We need to address a few significant engineering challenges to do this. The first is to develop a high-sensitivity FMCW radar providing near-ideal response requiring minimal signal processing for a single and multi-channel configuration. These systems must overcome sensitivity limitations posed by the internal reflections, chirp and system non-linearities, and transmitter-receiver feedthrough signals and operate in thermal noise regions, ensuring optimal performance. We can employ coherent signal processing techniques with thermal noise-limited systems and keep the transmit power low. The second is to develop a Mills-Cross antenna array for the airborne platform for these radar systems to obtain a narrow transmit-receive beamwidth. Finally, we must demonstrate that we can provide near-real-time operational data products in the field with the improved UWB radar.We performed careful design, simulations, and optimization to reduce the effects of system non-linearities, internal reflections, and chirp-related non-linearities in the radar. We extensively used modern computer-aided design (CAD) tools to optimize the transmitter and receiver sub-sections of the radar to obtain a perfect point target response that does not need additional signal processing. The radar we developed operates over 2-11 GHz and uses only 10 mW of transmit power. We addressed the challenge of obtaining the high transmitter-receiver over ultra-wide bandwidth and accommodating two large nadir-looking antennas on medium-range aircraft with a T-shape Mills-Cross antenna array with narrow two-way beamwidth. We demonstrated that we could deliver snowpack results in near real-time for operational applications within a few hours after completing each survey flight.en_US
dc.format.mediumelectronic
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdf
dc.identifier.otherhttp://purl.lib.ua.edu/188274
dc.identifier.otheru0015_0000001_0004793
dc.identifier.otherKolpuke_alatus_0004D_15349
dc.identifier.urihttps://ir.ua.edu/handle/123456789/12780
dc.languageEnglish
dc.language.isoen_US
dc.publisherUniversity of Alabama Libraries
dc.relation.haspartSupplementary material includes a pdf file of the certificate of completion of the survey of earned doctorates questionnaire
dc.relation.hasversionborn digital
dc.relation.ispartofThe University of Alabama Electronic Theses and Dissertations
dc.relation.ispartofThe University of Alabama Libraries Digital Collections
dc.rightsAll rights reserved by the author unless otherwise indicated.en_US
dc.subjectAirborne FMCW Radar
dc.subjectDual-polarized Ku-band radar
dc.subjectMills-Cross antenna array
dc.subjectMulti-channel FMCW radar
dc.subjectRadar simulations
dc.subjectSoil moisture radar
dc.titleDevelopment and Optimization of Airborne FMCW Radars for High-Resolution Snow Depth Measurementsen_us
dc.typethesis
dc.typetext
etdms.degree.departmentUniversity of Alabama. Department of Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics
etdms.degree.disciplineAerospace engineering
etdms.degree.grantorThe University of Alabama
etdms.degree.leveldoctoral
etdms.degree.namePh.D.

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