Research Exchange with China to develop next-generation space technology

Professor Steven Gao (Professor of RF and Microwave Engineering, School of Engineering and Digital Arts) has just been awarded funding amounting to £23,615, granted by the Royal Academy of Engineering. This is an exciting research exchange project collaborating with Dr. Xueshi Ren, National Key Laboratory of Antennas and Microwave Technologies, Xidian University, People’s Republic of China.
It is a one-year project starting on Sept. 1, 2013. The objectives of this project are to develop next-generation reflectarray antenna technologies for space-borne synthetic aperture radars (SAR) on board small satellites, space shuttles and other airborne platforms.
SAR, an imaging radar, produces high resolution radar images of the earth’s surface. It can be used day and night and can see through clouds. SAR has important wide-ranging applications for earth observations from space in remote sensing and mapping of the surfaces of both the Earth and other planets. SAR is used in various fields of research ranging from oceanography, geology, to archaeology. With SAR imagery, we can detect what is going on in the world for example, volcanic activity, glacier formation, fires, human impact, urban impact (structure/density) and to preduct disasters such as tsunami, earthquakes, and oil slicks.