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