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Antenna pattern corrections to microwave radiometer temperature calculations
Author(s) -
Beck F. B.
Publication year - 1975
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/rs010i010p00839
Subject(s) - radiometer , microwave , microwave radiometer , polarization (electrochemistry) , optics , antenna (radio) , dielectric , physics , computational physics , remote sensing , materials science , geology , telecommunications , computer science , optoelectronics , chemistry , quantum mechanics
Equations are presented which correct microwave radiometer temperature calculations for the averaging effect of the antenna pattern. Principal plane antenna patterns at 1.43, 4.0, and 7.5 GHz are used to determine the radiometer temperature of a saline water surface. The calculations, made as a function of frequency, polarization, and viewing angle, compare favorably with measured data. The results also show that excluding the measured antenna pattern from the calculations produces errors of the order of 10 or 20 K at a viewing angle of 70°. The low level (<−22 dB) cross‐polarization patterns of the above antennas are found to contribute insignificant changes (<0.5 K for the scope of this paper) in the calculated results. However, for demonstrational purposes, cross‐polarization patterns higher in magnitude (−16 dB) than those measured are included in the computations for comparison. The effects of water surface dielectric constant changes are also presented.