Thermal distortion is a critical design consideration for the Haystack Ultrawide-band Satellite Imaging Radar (HUSIR) with respect to its performance at W-band. This design consideration is needed due to the thermal distortion effects on the surface accuracy of a parabolic reflector. For example, a tight surface tolerance of ～100 microns root-mean-squared is required to obtain 85 percent antenna performance efficiency for the 37 meter (120 foot) diameter reflector. An understanding of the temperature and velocity fields aids compensation of these losses. Computational fluid dynamics models (CFD) are too computationally expensive to implement in a control algorithm. Therefore, this work applies proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) to simulated CFD data and creates a reduced order model of the fluid system that characterizes the dominant features of both the temperature and velocity fields. A case study of the HUSIR's convective flow inside a dome is illustrated.
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