Affordable small satellite for near-equatorial region microwave meteorological observation

Abstract

Near-equatorial microwave observation is currently in dire demand for numerical weather prediction (NWP). Through decades of progress on hardware, software and management, nowadays small satellite platforms offer a feasible possibility to carry high resolution microwave payload with much lower expenses and achieve comparable performances with SOTA professional satellites. This thesis performs a preliminary analysis for a potential small satellite with microwave payload to serve for near equatorial meteorology observation.