학술논문

Antenna Digital Beamforming on Spire's GNSS-Reflectometry CubeSat Constellation
Document Type
Conference
Source
2024 18th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP) Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP), 2024 18th European Conference on. :1-5 Mar, 2024
Subject
Fields, Waves and Electromagnetics
Radio frequency
Earth
Global navigation satellite system
Sea surface
Sensitivity
Array signal processing
Surface waves
GNSS-Reflectometry
beamforming
calibration
satellite
antenna
ocean wind
soil moisture
Language
Abstract
Spire operates a constellation of satellites that perform remote sensing of the Earth using the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) signals. Spire's STRATOS payload has been modified for sensing the Earth's surface using GNSS-Reflectometry (GNSS-R). This has found successful application in sensing the ocean wind / wave state and for retrieving volumetric soil moisture amongst others physical properties. In this paper the motivation for using antenna digital beamforming is described. The design elements that have been added, include the internal calibration, the digital signal processing and phase control. The calibration method uses the injection of a spread-spectrum signal into each of the radio inputs. This allows for absolute and relative calibration of signal amplitude and phase. A novel RF coupling device is devised to make a realisable RF coupler multitude of input channels. The scheme is tested on a two antenna system and the expected 3 dB improvement in receiver sensitivity is demonstrated.