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The Ka-band Radar Interferometer (KaRIn) is an altimeter used to measure water surface heights and one instrument aboard the NASA/CNES (Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales)/CSA (Canadian Space Agency)/United Kingdom Space Agency Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite. KaRIn is a near-nadir (+/- 2.7° look angle) swath-based instrument that measures the highly reflective water surface. The instrument acquires measurements at Ka-band (35.75 GHz) with two Ka-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) antennae at opposite ends of a 10-m boom. The KaRin instrument consists of the KaRIn Digital Electronics Subsystem (KDES), the Radio Frequency Unit (RFU), the High Power Amplifier (HPA), and the Deployable Antenna Assembly.

Instrument Type

Radar Interferometer

Specifications

Resolution

Spatial

Horizontal: 50 m over land, 1 km over ocean; vertical: 10 cm over land, 1 cm over ocean

Temporal

Global coverage every two weeks

Platforms

Frequently Asked Questions

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