IGARSS 2019 - 2019 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium
RainCube (Radar in a CubeSat) is a technology demonstration mission to enable Ka-band precipitati... more RainCube (Radar in a CubeSat) is a technology demonstration mission to enable Ka-band precipitation radar technologies on a low-cost, quick-turnaround platform. The 6U CubeSat currently in orbit features a radar payload built by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and a spacecraft bus and operations provided by Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems. Following the deployment of the half-meter parabolic antenna, the radar first observed rainfall over Mexico. The mission continues to operate and has met all requirements through repeated observations of precipitation in the atmosphere. RainCube is funded through the Science Mission Directorate’s (SMD) Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Science (ROSES) 2015 In-Space Validation of Earth Science Technologies (InVEST) solicitation with the goal of raising the instrument TRL to 7.
IGARSS 2018 - 2018 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, 2018
RainCube (Radar in a CubeSat) is a technology demonstration mission to enable Ka-band precipitati... more RainCube (Radar in a CubeSat) is a technology demonstration mission to enable Ka-band precipitation radar technologies on a low-cost, quick-turnaround platform. The mission is manifested for an ISS deployment with the ELaNa-23 launch, currently scheduled in May, 2018. Radar instruments have often been regarded as unsuitable for small satellite platforms due to their traditionally large size, weight, and power. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has developed a novel architecture compatible with the 6U class. The RainCube mission will validate two key technologies in the space environment - a miniaturized Ka-band precipitation profiling radar that occupies $\sim 2.5\mathrm{U}$ and a 0.5m Ka-band deployable parabolic antenna stowed within 1.5U. The spacecraft bus is developed by Tyvak Nanosatellite Systems, who will be responsible for integration of the flight system and mission operations. RainCube is funded through the Science Mission Directorate's (SMD) Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Science (ROSES) 2015 In-Space Validation of Earth Science Technologies (InVEST) solicitation with the goal of raising the instrument TRL to 7.
Journal of geophysical research. Atmospheres : JGR, Jan 27, 2016
Due to the large natural variability of its microphysical properties, the characterization of sol... more Due to the large natural variability of its microphysical properties, the characterization of solid precipitation is a longstanding problem. Since in situ observations are unavailable in severe convective systems, innovative remote sensing retrievals are needed to extend our understanding of such systems. This study presents a novel technique able to retrieve the density, mass, and effective diameter of graupel and hail in severe convection through the combination of airborne microwave remote sensing instruments. The retrieval is applied to measure solid precipitation properties within two convective cells observed on 23-24 May 2014 over North Carolina during the IPHEx campaign by the NASA ER-2 instrument suite. Between 30 and 40 degrees of freedom of signal are associated with the measurements, which is insufficient to provide full microphysics profiling. The measurements have the largest impact on the retrieval of ice particle sizes, followed by ice water contents. Ice densities a...
IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 2014
ABSTRACT This paper describes the expected performance of the Doppler cloud profiling radar being... more ABSTRACT This paper describes the expected performance of the Doppler cloud profiling radar being built for the Earth Cloud Aerosols Radiation Explorer (EarthCARE) mission of the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency and the European Space Agency. Spaceborne Doppler radar data are simulated starting from high-resolution Doppler measurements provided by ground-based and airborne Doppler radars, ranging from nonconvective to moderately convective scenarios. The method hinges upon spatial and spectral resampling to consider the specificities of the spaceborne configuration. An error analysis of the resulting Doppler product is conducted to address aliasing and nonuniform beam-filling (NUBF) problems. A perturbation analysis is applied to explore the latter problem and allow for a self-standing systematic correction of NUBF using merely the received reflectivity factor and mean Doppler velocities as measured by the instrument. The results of our simulations show that, at a horizontal integration of 1 km, after proper de-aliasing and NUBF correction, the radar will typically yield a velocity accuracy in the order of 1.3 ${{rm m}cdot{rm s}^{-1}}$ over intertropical regions where the pulse-repetition frequency $({rm PRF})=6.1~{rm kHz}$, of 0.8 ${{rm m}cdot{rm s}^{-1}}$ where the cloud-profiling radar (CPR) operates at ${rm PRF}=7~{rm kHz}$, and, of 0.7 ${{rm m}cdot s^{-1}}$ over high latitudes where the CPR of EarthCARE will operate at ${rm PRF}=7.5~{rm kHz}$.
Two decades of spaceborne cloud and precipitation radar data provided by the TRMM's Precipita... more Two decades of spaceborne cloud and precipitation radar data provided by the TRMM's Precipitation Radar (PR) [1], CloudSat's Cloud Profiling Radar (CPR) [2,3] and GPM's Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR) [4] have enabled unprecedented advancements in the global mapping of occurrence and vertical structure of most types of meteorological events. After the immense success of these radars, two new spaceborne atmospheric radars, the EarthCARE Cloud Profiling Radar (CPR) [5], and the Radar in a CubeSat (RainCube) [6] have been developed and will be launched in the upcoming years, and several new radar concepts have been developed and are being considered for a variety of mission concepts. For example, spaceborne precipitation and cloud radars operating at multiple frequencies (e.g., Ku-, Ka- and W-band simultaneously) with a single antenna, and that provide scanning, polarimetric and Doppler capabilities at all frequencies; extremely compact radar architectures that enable accommodation of this category of radars in spacecrafts as small as a 6U CubeSats, as well as Doppler-capable millimeter-wave weather radars for Low Earth Orbit (LEO) or Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) satellites, are being defined and developed. These new instrument concepts are intended to fill the current observational gaps in the advancement of weather and climate models, and leverage on the TRMM, GPM and CloudSat experiences.
Two decades of spaceborne cloud and precipitation radar data provided by the TRMM's Precipita... more Two decades of spaceborne cloud and precipitation radar data provided by the TRMM's Precipitation Radar (PR) [1], CloudSat's Cloud Profiling Radar (CPR) [2,3] and GPM's Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR) [4] have enabled unprecedented advancements in the global mapping of occurrence and vertical structure of most types of meteorological events. After the immense success of these radars, two new spaceborne atmospheric radars, the EarthCARE Cloud Profiling Radar (CPR) [5], and the Radar in a CubeSat (RainCube) [6] have been developed and will be launched in the upcoming years, and several new radar concepts have been developed and are being considered for a variety of mission concepts. For example, spaceborne precipitation and cloud radars operating at multiple frequencies (e.g., Ku-, Ka- and W-band simultaneously) with a single antenna, and that provide scanning, polarimetric and Doppler capabilities at all frequencies; extremely compact radar architectures that enable accommodation of this category of radars in spacecrafts as small as a 6U CubeSats, as well as Doppler-capable millimeter-wave weather radars for Low Earth Orbit (LEO) or Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) satellites, are being defined and developed. These new instrument concepts are intended to fill the current observational gaps in the advancement of weather and climate models, and leverage on the TRMM, GPM and CloudSat experiences.
CubeSats and SmallSats for Remote Sensing III, 2019
RainCube (Radar in a CubeSat) is a technology demonstration mission to enable Ka-band precipitati... more RainCube (Radar in a CubeSat) is a technology demonstration mission to enable Ka-band precipitation radar technologies on a low-cost, quick-turnaround platform. The 6U CubeSat, features a Ka-band nadir pointing precipitation radar with a half-meter parabolic antenna. RainCube first observed rainfall over Mexico in August 2018 and in the following months captured the distinct structures of a variety of storms as well as characteristic signatures of Earth’s surface essential to diagnose pointing and calibration. In this presentation we will focus on the characteristics of the observed scenes, specifically to convey the potential, as well as the limitations, of a radar of this class in addressing the goal of observing weather processes from space.
A new airborne rain profiling radar, known as the Dual-Frequency Airborne Precipitation Radar (AP... more A new airborne rain profiling radar, known as the Dual-Frequency Airborne Precipitation Radar (APR-2), has been developed as a prototype of the second-generation rain radar instruments for future spaceborne precipitation measurement missions. APR-2 is capable of making simultaneous measurements of multiple rainfall parameters, including co-polarized and cross-polarized reflectivities and vertical Doppler velocities of rainfall and snowfall at both 14 and 35 GHz. It also features several other advanced technologies for performance improvement, including real-time data processing, low-sidelobe pulse compression, and dual-frequency scanning antenna. It is different from the Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR) in the Global Precipitation Measurements (GPM) Mission in that DPR is physically consisting of two separate radars while APR-2 is a single radar with two frequency channels.
The importance of the motion of air masses at all scales of atmospheric circulation has brought s... more The importance of the motion of air masses at all scales of atmospheric circulation has brought substantial development of the Doppler radar technology in the field of precipitation monitoring. Although techniques have been developed in the last two decades for ground-based and airborne Doppler weather radars (Doviak and Zrnic, 1993 and Hildebrand and Moore 1990), they do not fully address the issues pertained to spaceborne radars. These unique issues arise from the downward viewing geometry with a fast moving (i.e., vS ≅ 7 km/s for Low Earth Orbiting (LEO) satellites) orbiting platform and a relatively large volume of resolution (e.g., 2km footprint radius and 250m range resolution).
Estimating the risk of flood-generating precipitation events in high-mountain regions with comple... more Estimating the risk of flood-generating precipitation events in high-mountain regions with complex orography is a difficult but crucial task. Quantitative precipitation forecasts (QPFs) at fine resolution are an essential ingredient to address this issue. Along these lines, the ability of the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model, operated at 3.5-km grid spacing, to reproduce the extreme meteorological event that led to the 2010 Pakistan flood and produced heavy monsoonal rain in the Indus basin is explored. The model results are compared with Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) rainfall estimates, the available ground measurements, and radar observations from the CloudSat mission. In particular, the sensitivity of the WRF simulations to the use of different convective closures (explicit and Kain–Fritsch) and microphysical parameterizations (WRF single-moment 6-class microphysics scheme and Thompson) is analyzed. The impact of using different initial conditions, associ...
IGARSS 2019 - 2019 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium
RainCube (Radar in a CubeSat) is a technology demonstration mission to enable Ka-band precipitati... more RainCube (Radar in a CubeSat) is a technology demonstration mission to enable Ka-band precipitation radar technologies on a low-cost, quick-turnaround platform. The 6U CubeSat currently in orbit features a radar payload built by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and a spacecraft bus and operations provided by Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems. Following the deployment of the half-meter parabolic antenna, the radar first observed rainfall over Mexico. The mission continues to operate and has met all requirements through repeated observations of precipitation in the atmosphere. RainCube is funded through the Science Mission Directorate’s (SMD) Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Science (ROSES) 2015 In-Space Validation of Earth Science Technologies (InVEST) solicitation with the goal of raising the instrument TRL to 7.
IGARSS 2018 - 2018 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, 2018
RainCube (Radar in a CubeSat) is a technology demonstration mission to enable Ka-band precipitati... more RainCube (Radar in a CubeSat) is a technology demonstration mission to enable Ka-band precipitation radar technologies on a low-cost, quick-turnaround platform. The mission is manifested for an ISS deployment with the ELaNa-23 launch, currently scheduled in May, 2018. Radar instruments have often been regarded as unsuitable for small satellite platforms due to their traditionally large size, weight, and power. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has developed a novel architecture compatible with the 6U class. The RainCube mission will validate two key technologies in the space environment - a miniaturized Ka-band precipitation profiling radar that occupies $\sim 2.5\mathrm{U}$ and a 0.5m Ka-band deployable parabolic antenna stowed within 1.5U. The spacecraft bus is developed by Tyvak Nanosatellite Systems, who will be responsible for integration of the flight system and mission operations. RainCube is funded through the Science Mission Directorate's (SMD) Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Science (ROSES) 2015 In-Space Validation of Earth Science Technologies (InVEST) solicitation with the goal of raising the instrument TRL to 7.
Journal of geophysical research. Atmospheres : JGR, Jan 27, 2016
Due to the large natural variability of its microphysical properties, the characterization of sol... more Due to the large natural variability of its microphysical properties, the characterization of solid precipitation is a longstanding problem. Since in situ observations are unavailable in severe convective systems, innovative remote sensing retrievals are needed to extend our understanding of such systems. This study presents a novel technique able to retrieve the density, mass, and effective diameter of graupel and hail in severe convection through the combination of airborne microwave remote sensing instruments. The retrieval is applied to measure solid precipitation properties within two convective cells observed on 23-24 May 2014 over North Carolina during the IPHEx campaign by the NASA ER-2 instrument suite. Between 30 and 40 degrees of freedom of signal are associated with the measurements, which is insufficient to provide full microphysics profiling. The measurements have the largest impact on the retrieval of ice particle sizes, followed by ice water contents. Ice densities a...
IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 2014
ABSTRACT This paper describes the expected performance of the Doppler cloud profiling radar being... more ABSTRACT This paper describes the expected performance of the Doppler cloud profiling radar being built for the Earth Cloud Aerosols Radiation Explorer (EarthCARE) mission of the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency and the European Space Agency. Spaceborne Doppler radar data are simulated starting from high-resolution Doppler measurements provided by ground-based and airborne Doppler radars, ranging from nonconvective to moderately convective scenarios. The method hinges upon spatial and spectral resampling to consider the specificities of the spaceborne configuration. An error analysis of the resulting Doppler product is conducted to address aliasing and nonuniform beam-filling (NUBF) problems. A perturbation analysis is applied to explore the latter problem and allow for a self-standing systematic correction of NUBF using merely the received reflectivity factor and mean Doppler velocities as measured by the instrument. The results of our simulations show that, at a horizontal integration of 1 km, after proper de-aliasing and NUBF correction, the radar will typically yield a velocity accuracy in the order of 1.3 ${{rm m}cdot{rm s}^{-1}}$ over intertropical regions where the pulse-repetition frequency $({rm PRF})=6.1~{rm kHz}$, of 0.8 ${{rm m}cdot{rm s}^{-1}}$ where the cloud-profiling radar (CPR) operates at ${rm PRF}=7~{rm kHz}$, and, of 0.7 ${{rm m}cdot s^{-1}}$ over high latitudes where the CPR of EarthCARE will operate at ${rm PRF}=7.5~{rm kHz}$.
Two decades of spaceborne cloud and precipitation radar data provided by the TRMM's Precipita... more Two decades of spaceborne cloud and precipitation radar data provided by the TRMM's Precipitation Radar (PR) [1], CloudSat's Cloud Profiling Radar (CPR) [2,3] and GPM's Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR) [4] have enabled unprecedented advancements in the global mapping of occurrence and vertical structure of most types of meteorological events. After the immense success of these radars, two new spaceborne atmospheric radars, the EarthCARE Cloud Profiling Radar (CPR) [5], and the Radar in a CubeSat (RainCube) [6] have been developed and will be launched in the upcoming years, and several new radar concepts have been developed and are being considered for a variety of mission concepts. For example, spaceborne precipitation and cloud radars operating at multiple frequencies (e.g., Ku-, Ka- and W-band simultaneously) with a single antenna, and that provide scanning, polarimetric and Doppler capabilities at all frequencies; extremely compact radar architectures that enable accommodation of this category of radars in spacecrafts as small as a 6U CubeSats, as well as Doppler-capable millimeter-wave weather radars for Low Earth Orbit (LEO) or Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) satellites, are being defined and developed. These new instrument concepts are intended to fill the current observational gaps in the advancement of weather and climate models, and leverage on the TRMM, GPM and CloudSat experiences.
Two decades of spaceborne cloud and precipitation radar data provided by the TRMM's Precipita... more Two decades of spaceborne cloud and precipitation radar data provided by the TRMM's Precipitation Radar (PR) [1], CloudSat's Cloud Profiling Radar (CPR) [2,3] and GPM's Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR) [4] have enabled unprecedented advancements in the global mapping of occurrence and vertical structure of most types of meteorological events. After the immense success of these radars, two new spaceborne atmospheric radars, the EarthCARE Cloud Profiling Radar (CPR) [5], and the Radar in a CubeSat (RainCube) [6] have been developed and will be launched in the upcoming years, and several new radar concepts have been developed and are being considered for a variety of mission concepts. For example, spaceborne precipitation and cloud radars operating at multiple frequencies (e.g., Ku-, Ka- and W-band simultaneously) with a single antenna, and that provide scanning, polarimetric and Doppler capabilities at all frequencies; extremely compact radar architectures that enable accommodation of this category of radars in spacecrafts as small as a 6U CubeSats, as well as Doppler-capable millimeter-wave weather radars for Low Earth Orbit (LEO) or Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) satellites, are being defined and developed. These new instrument concepts are intended to fill the current observational gaps in the advancement of weather and climate models, and leverage on the TRMM, GPM and CloudSat experiences.
CubeSats and SmallSats for Remote Sensing III, 2019
RainCube (Radar in a CubeSat) is a technology demonstration mission to enable Ka-band precipitati... more RainCube (Radar in a CubeSat) is a technology demonstration mission to enable Ka-band precipitation radar technologies on a low-cost, quick-turnaround platform. The 6U CubeSat, features a Ka-band nadir pointing precipitation radar with a half-meter parabolic antenna. RainCube first observed rainfall over Mexico in August 2018 and in the following months captured the distinct structures of a variety of storms as well as characteristic signatures of Earth’s surface essential to diagnose pointing and calibration. In this presentation we will focus on the characteristics of the observed scenes, specifically to convey the potential, as well as the limitations, of a radar of this class in addressing the goal of observing weather processes from space.
A new airborne rain profiling radar, known as the Dual-Frequency Airborne Precipitation Radar (AP... more A new airborne rain profiling radar, known as the Dual-Frequency Airborne Precipitation Radar (APR-2), has been developed as a prototype of the second-generation rain radar instruments for future spaceborne precipitation measurement missions. APR-2 is capable of making simultaneous measurements of multiple rainfall parameters, including co-polarized and cross-polarized reflectivities and vertical Doppler velocities of rainfall and snowfall at both 14 and 35 GHz. It also features several other advanced technologies for performance improvement, including real-time data processing, low-sidelobe pulse compression, and dual-frequency scanning antenna. It is different from the Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR) in the Global Precipitation Measurements (GPM) Mission in that DPR is physically consisting of two separate radars while APR-2 is a single radar with two frequency channels.
The importance of the motion of air masses at all scales of atmospheric circulation has brought s... more The importance of the motion of air masses at all scales of atmospheric circulation has brought substantial development of the Doppler radar technology in the field of precipitation monitoring. Although techniques have been developed in the last two decades for ground-based and airborne Doppler weather radars (Doviak and Zrnic, 1993 and Hildebrand and Moore 1990), they do not fully address the issues pertained to spaceborne radars. These unique issues arise from the downward viewing geometry with a fast moving (i.e., vS ≅ 7 km/s for Low Earth Orbiting (LEO) satellites) orbiting platform and a relatively large volume of resolution (e.g., 2km footprint radius and 250m range resolution).
Estimating the risk of flood-generating precipitation events in high-mountain regions with comple... more Estimating the risk of flood-generating precipitation events in high-mountain regions with complex orography is a difficult but crucial task. Quantitative precipitation forecasts (QPFs) at fine resolution are an essential ingredient to address this issue. Along these lines, the ability of the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model, operated at 3.5-km grid spacing, to reproduce the extreme meteorological event that led to the 2010 Pakistan flood and produced heavy monsoonal rain in the Indus basin is explored. The model results are compared with Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) rainfall estimates, the available ground measurements, and radar observations from the CloudSat mission. In particular, the sensitivity of the WRF simulations to the use of different convective closures (explicit and Kain–Fritsch) and microphysical parameterizations (WRF single-moment 6-class microphysics scheme and Thompson) is analyzed. The impact of using different initial conditions, associ...
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Papers by Simone Tanelli