The radar radiometer

Addition of a radar to a scanning microwave radiometer is shown to be simple and to consume little power. Since both the radar and the radiometer receive signals having the statistical properties of noise, both receivers may use the Dicke synchronous detection system, provided the radar receives enough independent samples. Application of the combined instrument to spacecraft measurement both of oceanic winds and waves and of precipitation has more promise than the use of either instrument alone, since they can, in part, calibrate each other. An aircraft imaging radar radiometer has potential for applications where superposition of the thermal radiometer image on a relatively static radar image will aid in interpretation.     

The hydrosphere State (hydros) Satellite mission: an Earth system pathfinder for global mapping of soil moisture and land freeze/thaw

The Hydrosphere State Mission (Hydros) is a pathfinder mission in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Earth System Science Pathfinder Program (ESSP). The objective of the mission is to provide exploratory global measurements of the earth's soil moisture at 10-km resolution with two- to three-days revisit and land-surface freeze/thaw conditions at 3-km resolution with one- to two-days revisit. The mission builds on the heritage of ground-based and airborne passive and active low-frequency microwave measurements that have demonstrated and validated the effectiveness of the measurements and associated algorithms for estimating the amount and phase (frozen or thawed) of surface soil moisture. The mission data will enable advances in weather and climate prediction and in mapping processes that link the water, energy, and carbon cycles. The Hydros instrument is a combined radar and radiometer system operating at 1.26 GHz (with VV, HH, and HV polarizations) and 1.41 GHz (with H, V, and U polarizations), respectively. The radar and the radiometer share the aperture of a 6-m antenna with a look-angle of 39/spl deg/ with respect to nadir. The lightweight deployable mesh antenna is rotated at 14.6 rpm to provide a constant look-angle scan across a swath width of 1000 km. The wide swath provides global coverage that meet the revisit requirements. The radiometer measurements allow retrieval of soil moisture in diverse (nonforested) landscapes with a resolution of 40 km. The radar measurements allow the retrieval of soil moisture at relatively high resolution (3 km). The mission includes combined radar/radiometer data products that will use the synergy of the two sensors to deliver enhanced-quality 10-km resolution soil moisture estimates. In this paper, the science requirements and their traceability to the instrument design are outlined. A review of the underlying measurement physics and key instrument performance parameters are also presented.     

多通道扫描成像辐射计热设计

多通道扫描成像辐射计是FY-4卫星的主要载荷之一,可实现对地的多光谱观测.辐射计在轨运行期间承受复杂的外热流环境,为保证高质量的成像品质,必须对其进行有效的热设计,根据地球静止轨道和辐射计构型特点,分析了热设计的特点,并对仪器进行详细的热设计和热分析,计算结果证明了热设计方案的合理性.     

Airborne CoSMIR Observations Between 50 and 183 GHz Over Snow-Covered Sierra Mountains

An airborne Conical Scanning Millimeter-wave Imaging Radiometer (CoSMIR) was developed recently for calibration/validation of the new-generation DMSP F-series microwave radiometer, the Special Sensor Microwave/Imager/Sounder. The CoSMIR is a total-power radiometer that measures radiation at nine channels over the frequency range of 50-183 GHz. The instrument employs a two-axis gimbaled mechanism to generate the conical scan with periodic calibration. Its scan geometry is software programmable and can be designed to serve the scientific requirements of an experiment. A series of CoSMIR flights was conducted over the coastal regions of California in March and December of 2004, in which the instrument was programmed to acquire both conical and across-track scan data sets simultaneously. Two of these flights on March 25 and December 2 contained segments over the snow-covered Sierra Mountain Range and were selected to demonstrate the novel features of this new instrument     

Imaging Simulation for MMW Synthetic Aperture Radiometer

A synthetic aperture radiometer is a new type of passive remote sensing instrument that can reach high spatial resolution. Restricted by antenna element size and operating wavelength, however, the system design is difficult at MMW band. In this paper, main technical parameters optimization of a synthetic aperture radiometer is discussed. Based on low-redundancy linear arrays, a millimeter wave synthetic aperture radiometric imaging scheme is presented. The simulation experimental results show that the system imaging effect depends on the synthetic aperture antenna pattern.     

The microwave radiometer aboard ERS-1.1. Characteristics andperformances

The microwave radiometer onboard ERS-1 has two channels at 23.8 and 35.6 GHz. It is a nadir pointing sensor, which is aimed at the correction of the altimeter tropospheric path delay. The characteristics of the instrument are described, and its performance is established from ground calibration results. Using early data obtained after launch, the in-flight engineering calibration is presented, showing that the radiometer behavior is nominal. The gain stability permits noise reduction, and the radiometer performance appears to be as good as specified     

Design and preflight performance of ASTER instrument protoflightmodel

The Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) is an advanced multispectral imager with high spatial, spectral, and radiometric resolution, built to fly on the EOS-AM1 spacecraft along with four other instruments, which will be launched in 1998. The ASTER instrument covers a wide spectral region, from visible to thermal infrared with 14 spectral bands. To meet the wide spectral coverage, optical sensing units of ASTER are separated into three subsystems: visible and near-infrared (VNIR) subsystem, shortwave infrared (SWIR) subsystem, and thermal infrared (TIR) subsystem. ASTER also has an along-track stereoscopic viewing capability using one of the near-infrared bands. To acquire the stereo data, the VNIR subsystem has two telescopes, one for nadir and another for backward viewing. Several new technologies are adopted as design challenges to realize high performance. Excellent observational performances are obtained by a pushbroom VNIR radiometer with a high spatial resolution of 15 m, a pushbroom SWIR radiometer with high spectral resolution, and a whiskbroom-type TIR radiometer with high spatial, spectral, and radiometric resolutions. The preflight performance is evaluated through a protoflight model (PFM)     

双通道热红外标准辐亮度计定标方法研究

黑体辐射源作为初级标准,其辐射特性的测量精度决定了整个标准传递链路的不确定度。为了提高黑体的辐亮度测量精度,研制了一台可直接观测黑体辐亮度的双通道热红外标准辐亮度计。根据仪器的工作原理,采用自行研制的高精度水浴黑体获取标准辐亮度计的定标系数。实验结果表明,该辐亮度计的1 h信号非稳定性优于0.3%,定标系数拟合不确定度优于1.23%,5 m通道整体不确定度为0.39%,10 m通道整体不确定度为1.3%。可实现黑体辐亮度与实验室辐射标准之间的传递。     

Detection of calibration drifts in spaceborne microwave radiometersusing a vicarious cold reference

The coldest possible brightness temperatures observed by a downward-looking microwave radiometer from space are often produced by calm oceans under cloud-free skies and very low humidity. This set of conditions tends to occur with sufficient regularity that an orbiting radiometer will accumulate a useful number of observations within a period of a few days to weeks. Histograms of the radiometer's coldest measurements provide an anchor point against which very small drifts in absolute calibration can be detected. This technique is applied to the TOPEX microwave radiometer (TMR), and a statistically significant drift of several tenths of a Kelvin per year is clearly detected in one of the channels. TMR housekeeping calibration data indicates a likely cause for the drift, as small changes in the isolation of latching ferrite circulators that are used in the onboard calibration-switch assembly. This method can easily be adapted to other microwave radiometers, especially imagers operating at frequencies in the atmospheric windows. In addition to detecting long-term instrument drifts with high precision, the method also provides a means for cross-calibrating different instruments. The cold reference provides a common tie point, even between sensors operating at different polarizations and/or incidence angles     

Design of 8mm-band Aperture Synthetic Radiometer and Imaging Experiment

An aperture synthetic radiometer (ASR) based on interferometric technology is a new type of passive microwave imaging instrument, which has high spatial resolution. Restricted by devices performance and operating wavelength, however, the system design is difficult at MMW band. In this paper, an 8mm-band aperture synthetic radiometric imaging system based on minimum-redundancy linear array is described, the performance specification of the instrument is analyzed. The preliminary imaging experiment result shows that the system has good passive MMW imaging (PMMWI) performance, indicating a bright outlook for the development of this technique in the future.     

周期两点定标微波辐射计原理研究

根据热辐射理论,任何温度处于绝对零度以上的物体都存在热辐射。通常用亮度温度来表征物体的辐射强度,其取决于物体本身的几何特性与介电特性。微波辐射计是用于测量物体微波辐射能量的被动遥感仪器,在军事、环境科学上都有重要的作用。阐述了微波辐射计的定标原理,介绍了周期两点定标方法,并简要描述了某毫米波成像辐射计的结构组成和工作原理。     

全极化微波辐射计数字化引入误差分析

全极化微波辐射计是一种用于海洋表面风场测量的新型被动微波遥感器.数字相关器是全极化辐射计的核心部件.数字相关器的应用相对于模拟相关辐射计具有可配置、集成度高和易于控制的特点.同时,数字化技术会给辐射计带来量化误差和相位抖动误差.具体的误差分析验证了全极化微波辐射计中数字化的可行性.文中详细分析了定量误差,并根据实际工程应用说明了多比特数字化带来的误差可以在系统整体误差中忽略.     

红外标准辐亮度计的研制及定标

黑体参考光源辐亮度精度是决定红外遥感器绝对辐射定标精度的关键因素。为了提高黑体辐亮度测量精度,设计了一种直接测量黑体辐亮度的红外标准辐亮度计。描述了整个系统的光机设计方案和工作原理,利用高精度水浴黑体对辐亮度计进行定标。实验结果表明:辐亮度计的1 h非稳定性优于0.03%;测量黑体辐亮度不确定度达0.22%,相当于308 K时辐亮度温度不确定度73 mK。该标准辐亮度计具有系统级测量、高精度溯源等优点,可实现黑体辐亮度与实验室辐射标准之间的溯源。     

Passive Microwave Spectral Emission from Saline Ice at C-Band During the Growth Phase

This paper focusses on microwave radiometer measurements of the emission from saline ice as a function of ice thickness. The instrument used is a C-band stepped-frequency microwave radiometer (SFMR) that can be tuned to operate at any center frequency from 4 to 8 GHz at a bandwidth of 100 MHz. The measurements were undertaken at a facility constructed by the U. S. Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, which was specifically designed to satisfy remote-sensing requirements. In addition to presenting the data, a simple theory is developed to explain the experimental results in terms of the relevant electromagnetic parameters; namely, the complex dielectric constant and thickness of the ice.     

Temperature compensation of total power radiometers

This paper describes a new technique to compensate output variations of total power radiometers due to physical temperature changes of the instrument. This technique performs the correction without the addition of expensive microwave hardware required in Dicke switching or many other widely used methods. A characterization period, over which the input antenna temperature is known, indicates the appropriate output adjustment needed for a change in physical temperature of the radiometer. The method effectively corrects the output in an example radiometer system built with inexpensive commercially available parts. For a 30-K variation in physical temperature, the measured data shows an improvement from 60-K peak-to-peak error to 6.9 K with an average absolute error of 1.1 K.     

A horizontal atmospheric temperature sounder: Applications to remote sensing of atmospheric hazards

Several atmospheric hazards, including wind shear, clear-air turbulence, and wake vortices cause special problems for aircraft. These phenomena are usually characterized by a change in temperature relative to ambient, which may be detected by a millimeter wave radiometer operating on an absorption line in the atmosphere. Because of available componentry with excellent performance and relative freedom from interference by water vapor, the family of oxygen absorptions centered near 60 GHz is considered the best atmospheric feature on which the design of such an instrument could be based. This paper describes a multi-channel radiometer operating near 60 GHz which should be capable of detecting the hazards mentioned above as well as other potential dangers such as the passage of strong fronts and other severe weather. It is shown that a carefully designed instrument will be capable of measuring range to a hazard to an accuracy of about 5 percent and temperature difference to an accuracy of approximately half the actual measured difference, depending on range and temperature. An actual design is proposed, and graphs of expected performance are included.     

六陌辖尉俦感器件

太阳辐射测量将对预测长期的气候变化提供重要依据.为了获得更加精确的太阳辐出度数据,研制微型化、高精度的绝对辐射计是今后太阳辐射探测的重要研究方向.介绍了目前研究的几种典型的太阳辐射传感器件,重点阐述了几种常用的热电型辐射探测器,对它们的特点进行了分析和比较.     

A Future Millimeter/Sub–Millimeter Radiometer for Satellite Observation of Ice Clouds

The instrument concept of a future spaceborne millimeter/sub-millimeter radiometer is proposed in this paper for the remote sensing of ice clouds from satellite. The proposed radiometer is expected to operate at a series of frequencies within the millimeter and sub-millimeter wave range from 150 to about 900 GHz. Five frequencies are selected in the atmospheric windows, i.e., 150, 220, 463, 683, 874 GHz, and at each frequency there are two orthogonally polarized channels. Three water vapor channels located close to 183.31 GHz are also included in this instrument, since they can provide water vapor information, which is needed for ice cloud parameter retrieval. To simplify system design and test, a modular design philosophy is followed in the receiver frontend design and two antennas are used separately for the millimeter and sub-millimeter channels. Overall, the instrument requirements can be met with today's technology, except for the channels at the highest frequencies, where the radiometric sensitivity can be larger than the required 1.0 K for the 10 km spatial resolution (2.5 ms integration time). However, this situation can be improved by averaging neighboring pixels in data processing if certain compromise in the spatial resolution can be made at these frequencies.     

Measurements of Atmospheric Water Vapor Above Mauna Kea Using an Infrared Radiometer

This paper presents the first results from a prototype infrared radiometer which has been developed to measure variations in atmospheric water vapor column abundance from high altitude sites. The performance of the infrared radiometer is compared and contrasted with that of a water vapor monitor operating at radio frequencies. Analysis shows that the infrared radiometer can measure variations at the level of ～ 1 μm precipitable water vapor (pwv) in an integration time of 1 s when the total column abundance is ～0.5 mm pwv. Since variations in atmospheric water vapor are the dominant source of phase noise in (sub)millimeter astronomical interferometry, an instrument capable of rapid and high sensitivity water vapor measurements has the potential to provide the necessary phase correction information for interferometric arrays.     

场地自动化观测辐射计的设计与实现

为了解决场地替代定标中人工测量地表反射率的不足,提高定标频次,获取大量连续的观测数据,研制了场地自动化观测辐射计,该辐射计共8个通道,覆盖可见及近红外波段,光谱带宽20~40 nm,通过北斗卫星实现远程数据传输,可以实现无人职守下的自动观测和数据回传。文中对该仪器的工作原理、各单元的设计和特点进行了描述,并给出了辐射计的室内辐射定标方法和结果,最后介绍了辐射计在敦煌辐射校正场的实验情况。