Conical-scanning active/passive microwave remote sensor computer simulation

This paper presents the details of an advanced satellite radar scatterometer end-to-end simulation, known as the Conically Scanning Active/Passive Sensor Simulation (CAPSS) used for hardware development trade studies. This simulation is a collection of customized software tools that permits design engineers to vary the instrument parameters and configurations to assess the resulting instrument performance under realistic on-orbit scenarios. Atmospheric and oceanic environmental parameters and satellite to earth geometry are used to simulate active and passive microwave measurements. Afterwards, these microwave observables are used in a geophysical retrieval algorithm to infer physical parameters such as ocean wind speed and direction. This simulation software provides an efficient method to perform engineering trade studies to optimize the sensor instrument design for a desired level of geophysical measurement performance. An example of a simulation of NASA's SeaWinds scatterometer on QuikSCAT is presented and compared to actual SeaWinds measurements.