Earth Remote Sensing with Signals of Opportunity
University
              
          Goals
              Conduct field experiments to collect P-band (137-400 MHz) satellite signals and evaluate their qualities for use in Earth remote sensing.
          Issues
          We wish to determine if communication satellite transmissions can be used as "signals of opportunity", sources of illumination in a bistatic radar configuration. Two key unknowns are the "ambiguity function", which represents our ability to identify the time of arrival of a signal, and the signal to noise ratio. Starting with published information about the expected performance of these satellite transmissions, you will use antennas designed by a previous VIP team to make direct measurements of the satellite signals and compute the ambiguity function to compare with a theoretical model
              Tools and Methods
          Antenna design
          Software Defined Radio
          Link Budgets
          Cross-correlation
          Spectrum analyzer
          Signal generator
              Desired Majors
          Electrical and Computer Engineering
          Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering
              Prep
              Good programming experience: C, MATLAB <br />Embedded programming: VHDL would be a plus <br />Experience with/intersting in buidling hardware