Radar Altimeter 2 (RA-2) is an instrument for determining the two-way delay of the radar echo from the Earth's surface to a very high precision: less than a nanosecond. It also measures the power and the shape of the reflected radar pulses.
It is a nadir-looking pulse-limited radar altimeter based on the heritage of ERS-1 RA functioning at the main nominal frequency of 13.575 GHz (Ku Band), which has been selected as a good compromise between the affordable antenna dimension that provides the necessary gain and the relatively low attenuation which experience the signals propagating through the troposphere.
Status
Operational
Type
Radar altimeter
Technical Characteristics
Accuracy
Altitude: better than 4.5cm, Wave height: better than 5% or 0.25m
Spatial Resolution
Swath Width
Waveband
Microwave: 13.575Ghz (Ku-Band) & 3.2GHz (S-Band)
Applications
Snow and Ice (Sea Ice)
Atmosphere (Winds)
Land (Topography/Mapping)
Ocean and Coast (Ocean Waves,Ocean Currents and Topography)
EO Data Access
