Design and Implementation of an SFCW Radar Platform for Environmental Monitoring

Current satellite-based active microwave observations lack the temporal resolution needed to accurately capture rapid Earth system dynamics such as soil–plant–atmosphere interactions, rainfall interception, snowfall and rain-on-snow events. Ground-based radar systems can resolve these processes but typically rely on high-end VNAs, limiting their affordability and deployment scale. This work presents a low-cost SFCW radar system built around a compact, SDR-based VNA with an enhanced RF front end supported by remote-access firmware and a cloud-based back end with automatic backup. Calibration experiments and preliminary measurements demonstrate that the system achieves stable performance and is capable of capturing high-temporal-resolution microwave signatures relevant for climate monitoring.