ALTIMETRY METHOD AND SYSTEM
First Claim
1. An altimetry method for determining an elevation profile of a portion of the Earth surface (ES), comprising the steps of:
- (a) providing a signal receiver (RX) on a first platform (S1) flying above said portion of the Earth surface, for receiving a temporal series of signals emitted by a second flying platform (S2) and scattered by said portion of the Earth surface; and
(b) computing altimetry waveforms, indicative of the elevation profile of said portion of the Earth surface, by processing the received signals;
characterized in that said step of computing altimetry waveforms comprises;
(b.1.1) determining correlation waveforms (XC) by cross-correlating the received signals with a plurality of locally-generated frequency-shifted replicas of the emitted signals, the frequency shift of each replica corresponding to the average Doppler shift of the signals reflected at a given time by a particular region of the Earth surface;
(b.1.2) introducing a Doppler frequency-dependent temporal shift to the correlation waveforms in order to compensate for range delay curvature; and
(b2) incoherently summing the temporally shifted correlation waveforms (CXC) corresponding to signals scattered by a same region of the Earth surface at different times during motion of said first platform.
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Abstract
An altimetry method comprising: providing a signal receiver (RX) on a first platform (S1) flying above a portion of the Earth surface (ES), for receiving a temporal series of signals emitted by a second flying platform (S2) and scattered by said portion of the Earth surface; and computing altimetry waveforms, indicative of an elevation profile of said portion of the Earth surface, by processing the received signals; characterized in that said step of computing altimetry waveforms comprises: cross-correlating the received signals with a plurality of locally-generated frequency-shifted replicas of the emitted signals; introducing a frequency-dependent temporal shift to the correlation waveforms in order to compensate for range delay curvature; and incoherently summing the temporally shifted correlation waveforms (CXC) corresponding to signals scattered by a same region of the Earth surface at different times during motion of said first platform.
42 Citations
15 Claims
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1. An altimetry method for determining an elevation profile of a portion of the Earth surface (ES), comprising the steps of:
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(a) providing a signal receiver (RX) on a first platform (S1) flying above said portion of the Earth surface, for receiving a temporal series of signals emitted by a second flying platform (S2) and scattered by said portion of the Earth surface; and (b) computing altimetry waveforms, indicative of the elevation profile of said portion of the Earth surface, by processing the received signals; characterized in that said step of computing altimetry waveforms comprises; (b.1.1) determining correlation waveforms (XC) by cross-correlating the received signals with a plurality of locally-generated frequency-shifted replicas of the emitted signals, the frequency shift of each replica corresponding to the average Doppler shift of the signals reflected at a given time by a particular region of the Earth surface; (b.1.2) introducing a Doppler frequency-dependent temporal shift to the correlation waveforms in order to compensate for range delay curvature; and (b2) incoherently summing the temporally shifted correlation waveforms (CXC) corresponding to signals scattered by a same region of the Earth surface at different times during motion of said first platform. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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Specification