OPN Calla¹* and Vishwa Sharma²

¹Director, International Centre for Radio Science, Nayapura, Mandore, Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India
²Ex. Scientist, International Centre for Radio Science, Nayapura, Mandore, Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India

*Corresponding Author: OPN Calla, Professor, Director, International Centre for Radio Science, Nayapura, Mandore, Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India.

Received: December 13, 2021; Published: June 30, 2022

Abstract

In the Solar system of our milky way galaxy the three planets i.e. Venus, Mars and Jupiter and also natural satellite of Saturn, the Titan and natural satellite of Earth, the Moon have been explored using Microwave Sensors. Microwave Remote Sensing of planets and natural satellites revealed the hidden aspects of them like evolution history of planets, mineral composition, surface and sub-surface properties, possibility of water and fossil etc. Microwave Remote Sensing is performed by using Passive Microwave sensors known as Radiometers i.e. Total Power Radiometer, Dicke Radiometer and Noise Injection Radiometer and Active Microwave Sensors like Real Aperture Radar, Synthetic Aperture Radar, Scatterometer and Altimeter. The brief overview of Passive Microwave Sensors and Active Microwave Sensors is given in this article. The surface of the second planet from Sun, 'Venus' has been studied by three satellites i.e. Mariner 2 of NASA/JPL (1962), Venera 15 and Venera 16 of NASA (1983) and Magellan of NASA (1989) which carried Active and Passive Microwave Sensors. The Red Planet, ‘Mars’ which is the most accessible planet to the humans is also mapped only by Active Microwave Sensors on board four satellites i. e. Mars Express of ESA (2003), Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter of NASA (2005), Tianwen-1 of CNSA (2020) and Mars 2020 of NASA (2020) till now. Exploration of the grandest planet Jupiter by Microwave Sensor is done only by Juno Satellite of NASA (2011) which carried Microwave Passive Sensor (Radiometer) and became the first satellite to study the Jupiter by Microwave Sensor. The Moon, only natural satellite of Earth stabilizes and moderates the climate of Earth has been mapped by nine satellites Kaguya/SELENE of JAXA (2007), Chang’e-1 of CNSA (2007), Chandrayaan-1 of ISRO (2008), Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter of NASA (2009), Chang’e-2 (2010), Chang’e-3 (2013), Chang’e-4 (2018) of CNSA, Chandrayaan-2 of ISRO (2019) and Chang’e-5 of CNSA (2020). All these satellites carried Microwave Active and Passive Sensors to map the Lunar Surface and Atmosphere etc. The Titan, largest Moon of Saturn is the only place known to have the liquids in the form of Rivers, lakes and seas on its surface has been mapped by Cassini- Huygens satellite which carried Active Microwave Sensor (Radar) and unveiled the secrets of Titan. In this article the authors have tried to cover all the Planets studied by Active and Passive Microwave Sensors whose specifications and findings have been given with all the information at one place that will help the scientific community.

Keywords: Microwave; Remote Sensing; Microwave Remote Sensors; Radiometer; Synthetic Aperture Radar; Real Aperture Radar; ; Altimeter; Scatterometer; Regolith; Subsurface; Geomorphology; Dielectric Properties; Water-ice; Brightness Temperature

References

1. OPN Calla. “Applications of Microwaves in Remote Sensing”. Special issues on IP Multimedia Communications 1 (2011): 1-8.
2. D P Sen Gupta and Jagadish Chandra Bose. “The Man and His Time”.
3. Mohan Shiv. “Microwave remote sensing of Moon” (2013).
4. Ulaby F T., et al. “Microwave Remote Sensing”. Vol. I, II, III, 1981, 1982, 1986, Addison-Wesley Publishing Company.
5. Hersman Ms and Poe GA. “Sensitivity of the total power radiometer with periodic absolute calibration”. IEEE Trans. Micro. Theo and tech. MTT-29, (1981): 32-40.
6. Neils Skou. “Microwave Radiometer Systems”.
7. Andreas Colliander. Noise Injection Radiometer Test Specifications and Requirements, Thesis for the Degree of Master of Science, Helsinki University of Technology (2002).
8. YK Chan and VC Koo. “An introduction to synthetic aperture radar (SAR)”. Progress In Electromagnetics Research B 2 (2008): 27-60.
9. Rosner V., et al. “Synthetic Aperture Radar - Hardware Development”. Radioengineering (2009).
10. https://www.wonderhousebooks.com/
11. https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/overview/
12. https://directory.eoportal.org/web/eoportal/satellite-missions
13. FT Barath., et al. “Mariner 2 Microwave Radiometer Experiment and Results”. The Astronomical Journal 1 (1964).
14. James B Pollack and Carl Sagan. “An analysis of the mariner 2 microwave observations of venus”. The Astrophysical Journal 150 (1967).
15. https://petermasek.tripod.com/venera15.html
16. Sebastian Emanuel Lauro., et al. “Multiple subglacial water bodies below the south pole of Mars unveiled by new MARSIS data”.
17. SK Mishra and Rajiv R. Bharti Physical Research Laboratory. “Subsurface detections by SHAllow RADar (SHARAD) on MARS”.
18. Fan M., et al. “The Mars Orbiter Subsurface Investigation Radar (MOSIR) on China’s Tianwen-1 Mission”. Space Science Review8 (2021).
19. https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/spacecraft/overview/
20. Janssen MA., et al. “MWR: Microwave Radiometer for the Juno Mission to Jupiter”. Space Science Review 213 (2017): 139-185.
21. Li Cheng., et al. “The water abundance in Jupiter's equatorial zone” (2020).
22. Narendra Bhandari. “The mysterious Moon and India's chandrayaan mission”. Vigyan Prasar (2008).
23. https://www.kaguya.jaxa.jp/en/about/about_sat_e.html
24. Ono T., et al. “The Lunar Radar Sounder (LRS) Onboard the Kaguya (SELENE) Spacecraft”. Space Science Reviews 154 (2010): 145-192.
25. OPN Calla and Vishwa Sharma. “Remote Sensing of Lunar Surface”. IJRSP3 (2020): 59-78.
26. https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/Mini-RF/multimedia/feature_ice_like_deposits.html
27. Calla O P N., et al. “Quantification of Water-Ice at Hermite-A Crater of the Lunar North Pole”. IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters2 (2016): 123.
28. Matthew Siegler., et al. “Thermal and Dielectric properties from the Chang'e-2 Microwave Radiometer”.
29. Su Yan., et al. “Data processing and initial results of Chang'e-3 lunar penetrating radar”. Research in Astronomy and Astrophysics (2014): 14.
30. H Zhou., et al. “Yutu-2 Radar Sounding Evidence of a Buried Crater at Chang'E-4 Landing Site". in IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing (2021).
31. Sriram S Bhiravarasu., et al. “Chandrayaan-2 Dual-Frequency SAR (DFSAR): Performance Characterization and Initial Results”. The Planetary Science Journal (2021).
32. James W. Head, Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences, Brown University Providence, RI 02912 USA. “Chang’E 5 Lunar Sample Return Mission Update”. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Extraterrestrial Materials Analysis Group (ExMAG) Spring Meeting: April 7 - 8, (2021).
33. Hanjie Song., et al. “Lunar regolith and substructure at Chang’E-5 landing site in the northern Oceanus Procellarum”. (2021).
34. https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/cassini/mission/spacecraft/cassini-orbiter/radio-detection-and-ranging/

Citation

Citation: OPN Calla and Vishwa Sharma. “Microwave Remote Sensing of Planets". Acta Scientific Applied Physics 2.7 (2022): 14-25.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2022 OPN Calla and Vishwa Sharma. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.