Our space radars, called SAR, rely on large antennas made of hundreds of electronic modules set in rows within blocks called tiles. Even if the modules are carefully selected and installed, each tile needs its own electrical and thermal “identity card”.
For each tile this means hundreds of hours and measurements. All the tests are obviously run automatically, but we have to carry out the synthesis, which is what we do here.
A space instrument like SAR is called active when it generates itself the electromagnetic wave which it sends towards the Earth. When it touches the target the shape of this wave is modified, and what's important is the ability of an instrument and its associated ground segment to restore an image from this modification.
Nowadays, the images produced by SAR instruments are of outstanding quality, as can be seen from COSMO-SkyMed images. But 'active' certainly means a great deal of hard work for us during design, production and tests. When we first started out we had no idea how much work would go into getting this technological “state of the art”.
In the space industry it is not so often that we have to produce hundreds of electronic modules which need to be as similar as possible. Quite a challenge, and one that was overcome by our production people.The other challenge which we, the test people, had to face is called characterization. To characterize means to know precisely the identity card needed to “correct” the relatively small differences between the tiles when the instrument is operating aboard the satellite, sending out its wave. This “characterization” plays a role in the current high quality level of SAR images that scientists benefit from today when they monitor the biosphere.
| < Never does nature say one thing and wisdom another | IASI: splitting up light > |
|---|
