Preliminary analysis of the performance metrics for the 26 GHz band receiving channel of the SNOWBEAR project

Due to congestion in the Earth Exploration Service (EES) X-Band (8.0–8.4 GHz) and MetSat X-Band (7.75–7.9 GHz) used today by most Earth Observation satellites for payload data downlinks and the increase in required downlink data rates, ESA has embarked on the technology preparation for the exploitation of the 26 GHz band by future Earth Observation missions. The Agency will use this band operationally for the first time in a polar orbit mission for the EUMETSAT Metop-SG spacecrafts (first Launch in 2021), currently under development by ESA. In this paper the SNOWBEAR (Svalbard grouNd StatiOn for Wide Band Earth observation dAta Reception) project status and goals, together with the receiving ground station system are described. Data collection and analysis in terms of ”absolute” (i.e., signal strength, cross-polar level, tracking errors, signal to noise, number of recorded frames) and ”relative” (measured performances compared against theoretical ones) statistics are also introduced. Preliminary analysis of two orbit cycles (around 210 passes each) is then reported, to give a first insight of the link performance and to introduce problems and possible causes.