Development and Implementation of an Efficient Temperature Management System for SAR System Calibration Transponders

Abstract

For the radiometric calibration of spaceborne synthetic aperture radar systems, active targets with known backscatter, so called transponders, are used. These serve as an external absolute reference, and the quality of the derived calibration parameters depends on the quality of the deployed transponders. Due to the temperature dependent behavior of the implemented active radio frequency components the transponder radar cross section is sensitive to the temperature of the components. This effect requires the implementation of a reliable and precise temperature management system to stabilize the temperature of the radio frequency components to a constant value under all relevant environmental conditions. In this master thesis an new temperature control concept is developed and analyzed with measurments in a climatic chamber in order to fulfill the increasing requirements for future transponders towards radiometric accuracy.