Influence of the Metal Shield on the Calibration Accuracy of a Microwave Calibration Load

In calibrating a microwave radiometer, the calibration load (the blackbody) is usually equipped with a metal shield. Due to the imperfect conductivity of the metal used, the shield will influence the calibration accuracy. In this paper, a physical model is constructed base on the radiation transfer theory to study the effect of the metal shield on the calibration accuracy. Simulation results show that the influence of the metal shield can be up to a few tenths of Kelvin, depending on the metal type, the shield an the antenna size.