Drone borne radar systems have seen considerable advances over recent years, and the application of drone-mounted continuous wave (CW) radars for remote sensing of snow properties has great potential. Regardless, major challenges remain in antenna design for which both low weight and small size combined with high gain and bandwidth are important design parameters. Additional limiting factors for CW radars include range ambiguities and antenna isolation. To solve these problems, we have developed an ultra-wideband snow sounder (UWiBaSS), specifically designed for drone-mounted measurements of snow properties. In this paper, we present the next iteration of this prototype radar system, including a novel antenna configuration and useful processing techniques for drone borne radar. Finally, we present results from a field campaign on Svalbard aimed to measure snow depth distribution. This radar system is capable of measuring snow depth with a correlation coefficient of 0.97 compared to in situ depth probing.

中文翻译：

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无人机安装的 UWB 雪地雷达：技术改进和现场结果

近年来，无人机雷达系统取得了长足的进步，无人机车载连续波 (CW) 雷达在雪特性遥感方面的应用具有巨大潜力。无论如何，在天线设计中仍然存在重大挑战，因为轻量化和小尺寸结合高增益和带宽是重要的设计参数。CW 雷达的其他限制因素包括距离模糊度和天线隔离度。为了解决这些问题，我们开发了一种超宽带雪测深仪 (UWiBaSS)，专为无人机安装的雪特性测量而设计。在本文中，我们介绍了该原型雷达系统的下一次迭代，包括一种新颖的天线配置和无人机携带雷达的有用处理技术。最后，我们展示了在斯瓦尔巴群岛进行的旨在测量雪深分布的实地活动的结果。与原位深度探测相比，该雷达系统能够以 0.97 的相关系数测量雪深。