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Calibration and experimental results of a two‐dimensional interferometric radiometer laboratory prototype
Author(s) -
Camps A.,
Torres F.,
Corbella I.,
Bará J.,
Soler X.
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
radio science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.371
H-Index - 84
eISSN - 1944-799X
pISSN - 0048-6604
DOI - 10.1029/97rs01268
Subject(s) - remote sensing , radiometer , radiometry , brightness temperature , interferometry , calibration , aperture synthesis , microwave radiometer , brightness , synthetic aperture radar , offset (computer science) , optics , microwave , amplitude , physics , environmental science , geology , computer science , quantum mechanics , programming language
In recent years, Earth observation by means of aperture synthesis radiometry has received special attention by some space agencies as a possible solution to achieve high radiometric accuracy and spatial resolution at low microwave frequencies (L band), where the apparent brightness temperature is much more sensitive to soil moisture and sea surface salinity. This paper presents the characterization and calibration procedure, as well as some synthetic images measured with an X band experimental Y‐shaped Synthetic Aperture Interferometric Radiometer prototype developed at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia. The instrument is composed of a single pair of antennas that can be moved along the arms of an Y structure to synthesize a set of baselines. An experimental procedure is proposed to evaluate and then calibrate offset, inphase, quadrature, and amplitude errors generated by receivers and correlators.