The Los Alamos microwave interferometer

Author

Kirkland, Matt W. ; Carlos, Robert ; Shao, X.-M. ; DeHaven, X.V. ; Jacobson, Abram R.

Author_Institution

Los Alamos Nat. Lab., NM, USA

Volume

38

Issue

2

fYear

2000

fDate

3/1/2000 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

849

Lastpage

857

Abstract

The authors describe a multi-antenna microwave receiver system that monitors an unmodulated beacon transmission from a geosynchronous satellite. The system interferometrically measures temporal fluctuations in tropospheric differential path length, which include fluctuations in precipitable water vapor, over 100to 400-meter baseline lengths. Over 300 s, the system root mean square error (rms) noise is 0.01 radian. These observations will facilitate studies of air parcel motion as the means by which the causative, phase-corrupting atmospheric inhomogeneities drift over the array. The resulting data will be useful for studies of convective boundary layer turbulence, a region difficult to fully access

Keywords

atmospheric boundary layer; atmospheric humidity; atmospheric measuring apparatus; atmospheric turbulence; remote sensing; Los Alamos; air parcel motion; atmosphere; convective boundary layer; differential path length; equipment; fluctuations; geosynchronous satellite; humidity; instrument; measurement technique; meteorology; microwave interferometer; multi-antenna microwave receiver; phase-corrupting atmospheric inhomogeneities; precipitable water; remote sensing; temporal fluctuations; troposphere; turbulence; unmodulated beacon transmission; water vapor; water vapour; Atmosphere; Atmospheric measurements; Atmospheric modeling; Delay; Electromagnetic heating; Extraterrestrial measurements; Length measurement; Phased arrays; Satellites; Temperature;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Geoscience and Remote Sensing, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0196-2892

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/36.842013

Filename

842013