Federal award (DEFINITIVE CONTRACT, fiscal year 2022)
Recipient: NORTHROP GRUMMAN SYSTEMS CORPORATION
Awarding agency: National Aeronautics and Space Administration / National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Funding agency: National Aeronautics and Space Administration / National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Period of performance: 2014-08-13 to 2017-12-31
Current total value of award: $4124209
Description: EARTH SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY OFFICE (ESTO) 2013 INSTRUMENT INCUBATOR PROGRAM (IIP)- THIS IS AN NRA AWARD FOR PROPOSAL TITLED:  WIDE-SWATH SHARED APERTURE CLOUD RADAR (WISCR) THE GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER (GSFC) AND NORTHROP GRUMMAN ELECTRONIC SYSTEMS (NGES) SEEK TO ADVANCE KEY ENABLING TECHNOLOGIES FOR NEXT GENERATION MULTI-FREQUENCY SPACE-BORNE RADAR FOR CLOUD AND PRECIPITATION MEASUREMENTS. THE EARTH SCIENCE DECADAL SURVEY (DS) AEROSOL, CLOUD AND ECOSYSTEMS (ACE) MISSION CALLS FOR A DUAL-FREQUENCY CLOUD RADAR (W BAND 94 GHZ AND KA-BAND 35 GHZ) FOR GEOSPATIAL MEASUREMENTS OF CLOUD MICROPHYSICAL PROPERTIES. MEANWHILE, A TRI-FREQUENCY SPACEBORNE RADAR CONCEPT (W BAND 94 GHZ, KA-BAND 35 GHZ, AND KU-BAND 14 GHZ) IS BEING CONSIDERED BY THE CLOUD AND PRECIPITATION SCIENCE COMMUNITIES. WE ENVISION A WIDE-SWATH SHARED APERTURE CLOUD RADAR (WISCR) THAT WILL PROVIDE UNPRECEDENTED, SIMULTANEOUS MULTI-FREQUENCY MEASUREMENTS TO ENHANCE UNDERSTANDING OF THE EFFECTS OF CLOUDS AND PRECIPITATION AND THEIR INTERACTION ON EARTH CLIMATE CHANGE.  ESTO S INSTRUMENT INCUBATOR PROGRAM (IIP-2010) ENABLED OUR INVESTIGATION TEAM TO SUCCESS-FULLY DEMONSTRATE THE TECHNICAL FEASIBILITY OF A SHARED, LARGE APERTURE ANTENNA TO ACHIEVE WIDE SWATH IMAGING AT KA-BAND AND NADIR PROFILING AT W-BAND. OUR APPROACH EMPLOYS A PARABOLIC CYLINDRICAL REFLECTOR WITH A KA-BAND ACTIVE ELECTRONICALLY SCANNED ARRAY (AESA) LINE FEED TO ACHIEVE A SWATH EXCEEDING 120 KM. A LOW-LOSS REFLECTARRAY SURFACE IS APPLIED TO THE PRIMARY REFLECTOR TO PROVIDE A FOCUSED W-BAND BEAM. WE PROPOSE TO ADVANCE THESE TECHNOLOGIES TO ADDRESS THE EMERGING NEEDS FOR SPACEBORNE ATMOSPHERIC RADAR.  WE WILL ADVANCE THE TECHNOLOGY READINESS OF WISCR THROUGH THE FOLLOWING ACTIVITIES: (1) DESIGN/DEVELOP THE KA BAND AESA MODULE INCLUDING THE GAN POWER AMPLIFIER MMIC, THE GAAS MULTI-FUNCTION MMIC, THE GAAS LOW NOISE AMPLIFIER MMIC, THE POWER  CONTROLLER/GATE REGULATOR ASIC, AND THE TRANSMIT/RECEIVE CIRCULATOR (2) DEVELOP THROUGH AIRBORNE DEMONSTRATION A MULTI-CHANNEL ARBITRARY WAVEFORM GENERATOR (MAGW), A MULTI-CHANNEL FREQUENCY CONVERSION MODULE (MFCM) AND A NOVEL FREQUENCY DIVERSITY PULSE PAIR (FDPP) TECHNIQUE (3) INVESTIGATE ARCHITECTURES THAT EXTEND OUR DUAL-BAND APERTURE TECHNOLOGIES TO PROVIDE TRI-FREQUENCY SHARED APERTURE CAPABILITY.