REMOTE OPERATION OF THE YSCAT SCATTEROMETER

Abstract

A scatterometer is a radar system designed to make precise measurements of the magnitude of the radar echo scattered from surface. If the measurement is made over the ocean's surface, the surface wind speed and direction can be inferred. In order to better understand the relationship between the radar return and the ocean winds we have developed a unique ultra-wide band research scatterometer known as Yscat. The Yscat radar system is computer controlled, with a separate computer collecting environmental data. During a typical deployment, such as a recently completed 7 month deployment on Lake Ontario, the radar system is required to operate unmanned for weeks at a time, collecting data at a rate of up to 2 GB per week. Controlling such a complex system, and handling such large amounts of data presents a challenging remote operation problem. We used a novel combination of personal computers, telephone controlled switches, modems, and off the shelf software packages to enable us to perform daily monitoring, trouble shooting, and data transfer via a simple telephone connection. Data was stored on 4 mm DAT tapes for weekly pickup by a technician. This paper describes the Yscat system and our approach to control, monitoring, and data storage. While our approach is relatively "low tech", it has been very cost effective. This type of approach may be of interest to other designers of unique instrumentation at remote sites.