A multifrequency microwave radiometer of the future

Author

Le Vine, David M. ; Wilheit, Thomas T., Jr. ; Murphy, Robert E. ; Swift, Calvin T.

Author_Institution

Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA

Volume

27

Issue

2

fYear

1989

fDate

3/1/1989 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

193

Lastpage

199

Abstract

A description is given of a passive microwave remote sensing system designed to meet the observational needs of Earth scientists in the 1990s. This system, called the high-resolution multifrequency microwave radiometer (HMMR), is to be part of a complement of instruments in polar orbit that will form the Earth Observing System (Eos). As presently envisioned, the HMMR will consist of three separate instruments. These are the advanced microwave sounding unit (AMSU) presently under development for NOAA (US National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration), the advanced mechanically scanned radiometer (AMSR), and the electronically scanned thinned array radiometer (ESTAR). The AMSU will provide atmospheric soundings of temperature and water vapor using channels in the oxygen resonance band (50-60 GHz) and water vapor resonance line at 183 GHz. The AMSR is to be a microwave imager including channels at approximately 6, 10, 18, 21, 37, and 90 GHz, each with dual (linear) polarization. The ESTAR is an imaging radiometer operating near 1.4 GHz designed to obtain global maps of surface soil moisture with spatial resolution on the order of 10 km

Keywords

geophysical equipment; microwave antennas; radiometers; receiving antennas; remote sensing; 1.4 to 90 GHz; AMSR; AMSU; EHF; ESTAR; Earth Observing System; Eos; H₂O; HMMR; O; SHF; UHF; advanced mechanically scanned radiometer; advanced microwave sounding unit; antennas; electronically scanned thinned array radiometer; geophysical equipment; high-resolution multifrequency microwave radiometer; polarization; remote sensing; resonance band; spatial resolution; surface soil moisture; temperature; water vapor; Earth Observing System; Hidden Markov models; Instruments; Microwave antenna arrays; Microwave imaging; Microwave radiometry; Ocean temperature; Passive microwave remote sensing; Polarization; Resonance;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Geoscience and Remote Sensing, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0196-2892

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/36.20298

Filename

20298