DocumentCode :
3603034
Title :
Aquarius L-Band Microwave Radiometer: 3 Years of Radiometric Performance and Systematic Effects
Author :
Piepmeier, Jeffrey R. ; Hong, Liang ; Pellerano, Fernando A.
Author_Institution :
Microwave Instrument Technology Branch, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA
Volume :
8
Issue :
12
fYear :
2015
Firstpage :
5416
Lastpage :
5423
Abstract :
The Aquarius L-band microwave radiometer is a three-beam pushbroom instrument designed to measure sea-surface salinity. Results are analyzed for performance and systematic effects over three years of operation. The thermal control system maintains tight temperature stability promoting good gain stability. The gain spectrum exhibits expected orbital variations with 
noise appearing at longer time periods. The on-board detection and integration scheme coupled with the calibration algorithm produce antenna temperatures with NEDT 
for 1.44-s samples. Nonlinearity is characterized before launch and the derived correction is verified with cold-sky calibration (CSC) data. Finally, long-term drift is discovered in all channels with 1-K amplitude and 100-day time constant. Nonetheless, it is adeptly corrected using an exponential model.
Keywords :
Antennas; Calibration; L-band; Microwave radiometry; Thermal stability; Calibration; microwave radiometer;
fLanguage :
English
Journal_Title :
Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing, IEEE Journal of
Publisher :
ieee
ISSN :
1939-1404
Type :
jour
DOI :
10.1109/JSTARS.2015.2435493
Filename :
7122853
Link To Document :
