Dual-Beam Interferometer

The Dual-Beam Interferometer (DBI) is a pod-based interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) developed for sea-surface current mapping and air-sea interaction studies.  Development of the instrument was funded by the Office of Naval Research and iniitial flight experiments were performed in partnership with the Naval Research Laboratory's Remote Sensing Division.

The DBI is a vector along-track interferometer.  The measurement concept is described in Frasier and Camps (2001), and the instrument is described in greater detail in Farquharson et al, (2004).  The photo at right shows the four antennas (white panels) arranged as two interferometers, one looking slightly forward and the other looking aft.  The radar electronics and data acquisition are self contained in the rack located between the antennas.  The photo below shows the pod installed on the NOAA P-3 research aircraft.  It looks a lot smaller when it is on a giant plane...