NASA Water

1
NASA Water Energy Cycle Focus Area
ReviewTechnology Requirements Overview
2
Water and Energy Cycle
Improved water cycle forecasts of precipitation,
runoff, snowmelt, and evaporation for use in
Decision Support Systems
River discharge monitored globally Snow water
equivalent observations
T
NASA
Global precipitation measurements (GPM)
Partnership
Unfunded
T
Global Soil Moisture
field campaign
Quantify and elucidate mechanisms of the mean
state, variability, and extremes of the water and
energy cycles, including quantification of both
fluxes and storages
Global estimates of ocean evaporation and land
evaporation
T Technology development required
Global monitoring of water and energy (GIFTS)
GOAL Capability to observe, model, and
predict the Water and Energy cycles, including
regional scales and extreme events
Vertical profiles of cloud structure and
properties (Cloudsat/Calypso)
Cloud parameterization and precipitation/water-vap
or assimilation enabling more reliable short-term
precipitation forecasts and accurate role of
clouds in climate predictions
Knowledge Base
Data assimilation of precipitation and water vapor
Detection of gravity perturbations due to water
distribution (GRACE)
Assessments of natural variability in
atmospheric, surface and subsurface moisture and
energy
EOS/in-situ observations of land surface state
variables
Improved latent heating profiles and convective
parameterizations within weather and climate
models
Observations of tropical rainfall/energy release
(TRMM)
Ongoing model, data assimilation and
observational data improvements. Enhancements in
computing resources and data systems

• Reservoirs and tropical rainfall well quantified
• Difficulty balancing the water budget on any
  scale
• Inability to observe and predict precipitation
  globally

Systematic measurements of precipitation, SST,
land and snow cover
IPCC Report
IPCC Report
3
Water Energy Cycle Knowledge Requirements
Science Measurement Technology Options
Challenges
gt 3 m diameter deployable mesh antenna with gt 80
efficiency at Ku-band
Scatterometer
Ku-band Interferometer SAR
10-50m interferometric mast deployable with lt
0.5deg phase stability
10m L-band 5m Ku-band deployable beam scanning
antennas with lt0.5deg phase stability
Ku/L-band InSAR
Snow Cover, Accumulation, Water Equivalent
6-20m C-band 5m Ku-band electronic scanning
antennas with 5-8kg/sq-m mass density
C/Ku-band Polarimetric SAR
K-band (18.7 GHz) , Ka-band (37 GHz) Radiometer
gt 6m aperture conical scanning reflector
K Ka-band (18.7 37 GHz) synthetic thinned
aperture radiometer with gt 150 microwave receiver
elements
1 2D Synthetic Thinned Aperture Radiometer
(STAR)
5m Ka-band (35 GHz) deployable phase array or 5m
reflector linear scanning feed
Interferometer SAR
River Discharge Rate River Stage Height
Coherent Doppler Lidar
2J_at_ 2mm 12Hz 1m collector
Large (50 meter) deployable antenna
UHF/VHF SAR
Real Aperture L-band Radiometer
Soil Moisture
25m deployable antenna
L-band STAR
Low loss, light weight L-band feed arrays
4
Snow Cover, Accumulation, Water Equivalent
(cont.)
gt3m diameter gt80 aperture efficiency
deployable antenna
Traveling wave tube amplifier
1KW Ku-band transmitter
SeaSat NSCAT QuickSCAT SeaWinds
Ku-band Scatterometer
Low power high Speed digital electronics
lt0.05 degree phase Stable antenna
Technology Options
gt2KW transmitter
SIR-C/SRTM ERS-1/2 AirSAR GeoSAR
Ku/L-band Interferometer SAR
5-8kg/sq-m mass antenna technologies
gt160GHz LNAs gt50GHz LO sources
SIR-C/SRTM ERS-1/2 AirSAR GeoSAR
gt2KW transmitter
C/Ku-band Polarimetric SAR
State-of-the-Art
2004
2015
2009
Current Related ESTO Investments
Cryospheric Advanced Sensor A Spaceborne
Microwave Sensor (VHF/Ku-band) For Sea Ice
Thickness and Snow Cover Characteristics
(Hussein, JPL, IIP) On-Board Processor for Direct
Distribution of Change Detection Data Products
(Lou, JPL, AIST)
5
Snow Cover, Accumulation, Water Equivalent
High frequency LNAs, Mixers, LOs, and receivers
gt6m aperture conical Scanning reflector
SMMR AMSR CMIS
K/Ka-band Radiometer
gt3m arms, Y-shaped stowable/deployable, gt200
microwave receiver elements per arm
gt6x12m cylindrical reflector array stowable/deplo
yable, 150 microwave receiver elements _at_lt0.5mW
per element
gt1M correlators, lt0.1mW per correlation
Technology Options
SMOS STAR-Light 2D-ESTAR
1D/2D Synthetic Thinned Aperture Radiometer
State-of-the-Art
2004
2015
2009
Current Related ESTO Investments
Digital Receiver With Interference Suppression
for Microwave Radiometry (Johnson, Ohio State
University, IIP)
6
Global River Discharge
5m reflector with 35GHz linear scanning feed
5m Ka-band (35GHz) deployable phased array
mm-wave T/R modules
SRTM WSOA AIRSAR
Ka-band Interferometer SAR
Technology Options
UAV (20km) 50mJ_at_2mm 100Hz PRF 0.3m collector
Airborne (2km 5mJ_at_2mm 100Hz PRF) 0.1m collector
2J_at_2mm 12Hz PRF 1m collector
MOLA SLA GLAS
Coherent Doppler Lidar
State-of-the-Art
2004
2015
2009
Current Related ESTO Investments
Environmental effects on Optical Materials
(Hedgeland, GSFC, LRRP) 2-Micron Pulsed
Transmitter Laser (JirongYu, LaRC, LRRP)
7
Global Soil Moisture

50 m UHF/VHF/L-band Deployable Antenna
30 meter UHF/VHF Deployable Antenna
Analog RFI Mitigation
6-12m antennas
UHF/VHF/L-Band SAR
Low-Cost, low power multiple feed arrays, dual
polarization
25m deployable antenna
Analog RFI Mitigation
IIP Radar/ Radiometer Suite
Technology Options
L-band Radiometer
Low loss lightweight L-band feed array
Deployable ultra light structure for 25m STAR
Analog RFI Mitigation
ESTAR airborne radiometer
L-band STAR Radiometer
State-of-the-Art
2004
2015
2009
Current Related ESTO Investments
UHF/VHF 30-meter paranolic mesh reflector
(Moghaddam, U of Michigan/JPL, IIP) Digital
Receiver with Interferrence Suppression for
Microwave Radiometry (Johnson, Ohio State
University, IIP)
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Information Systems Technologies (cont.)
Speed 15 GHz Size 100 nm RadHard 1.5 GHz
Low Power, Reconfigurable, Radhard Processor
High Bandwidth 1 Gbps Optical Buss
Microprocessor Speed3 GHz Size130 nm
Data Collection and Handling Microprocessor,
Board and Buss Technology
High performance, evolvable FSMS
Swath database management system
Technology Options
Proprietary File Storage Management System
(FSMS)
Search, Access, Analysis and Display
High-Performance Open Archives
State-of-the-Art
2009
2004
2015
Current Related ESTO Investments
Radiation Tolerant Intelligent Memory Stack
(Herath, LaRC, AIST) Reconfigurable Protocol Chip
for Satellite Networks (Gray, JPL, AIST) RHinO
Reconfigurable Hardware In Orbit (Schott,
University of Southern California, AIST) Merging
the NetCDF and HDF5 Libraries to Achieve Gains in
Performance and Interoperability (Rew, UCAR/NCAR,
AIST) Intelligent Dataset Identification,
Assimilation, Collection and Transformation
(Nance, University of Alaska, AIST) Integration
of OGC and Grid Technologies for Earth Science
Modeling and Applications (Di, George Mason
University, AIST)
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Information Systems Technologies
80 MSPS Lossy High Performance Feature ID
80 MSPS Lossless 21 JPEG (20 MSPS) ROI (40
MSPS) Lossy Compression
Lossless 31
220 MSPS 51 Lossless Data Compression
Transmission and Dissemination Lossless Lossy
Data Compression
Ground-Based Optical Technologies
High efficiency modulation code
High Data Rate Space-Based Optical Technologies
X-Band and Ka-Band
Transmission and Dissemination High Data Rate
Communications
Technology Options
State-of-the-Art
2004
2015
2009
Current Related ESTO Investments
Hybrid Ground Phased Array Antenna for Low Earth
Orbiting Satellites (Mandl, GSFC, AIST) RF Agile
Low Power Transceiver (LPT) Technology for
Space-Based Communications Networks (Weigamd,
ITT Industries, AIST) Low Power Transceiver (LPT)
NASA/Air Force Partnership (Baker, Air Force
Research Lab (AFRL), AIST)
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Cold Land Processes Study An evaluation of
technology alternatives

• A collaboration of the Terrestrial Hydrology
  Program and ESTO
• Six technology scenarios (3 active, 3 passive)
  were proposed and evaluated independently for
  their potential to support improved snow
  measurements
• Three active microwave scenarios were
• Ku-band interferometric SAR
• Ku/L-band SAR
• Ku-band interferometric SAR and L-band SAR
• Three passive microwave scenarios were all
  dual-frequency with 19- and 37-GHz, and included
• Real aperture microwave radiometers
• One- and two- dimensional synthetic thinned array
  microwave radiometers
• Two of the six options were chosen for additional
  study
• The dual-frequency Ku/L-band SAR for active
• The One-dimensional synthetic thinned array
  microwave radiometer for passive