On the Long-Term Stability of Microwave Radiometers Using Noise Diodes for Calibration

Brown, Shannon; Desai, S. D.; Lu, Wenwen; Tanner, Alan

doi:10.1109/tgrs.2006.888098

Cited by 55 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…An illustration of this was the detection of the spurious drift of the early TOPEX TMR measurements (Fu and Haines, 2012). The Jason-1 and Jason-2 radiometers (JMR and AMR, respectively) have benefited from an internal calibration thanks to the noise diode system (Brown et al, 2007), but the associated WTC is affected by spurious jumps (Brown et al, 2011). The long-term survey of the measured brightness temperatures over naturally stable cold or hot terrestrial targets has provided a reduction of the JMR drift from 3 to 0.1 mm yr −1 (Brown et al, 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Jason-1 and Jason-2 radiometers (JMR and AMR, respectively) have benefited from an internal calibration thanks to the noise diode system (Brown et al, 2007), but the associated WTC is affected by spurious jumps (Brown et al, 2011). The long-term survey of the measured brightness temperatures over naturally stable cold or hot terrestrial targets has provided a reduction of the JMR drift from 3 to 0.1 mm yr −1 (Brown et al, 2007). For Jason-2, a semiautonomous radiometer calibration system (ARCS) aims to remove the largest jumps of the AMR measurements before the production of geophysical data records.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Evaluation of wet troposphere path delays from atmospheric reanalyses and radiometers and their impact on the altimeter sea level

2014

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Abstract. The assessment of long-term errors in altimeter sea level measurements is essential for studies related to the mean sea level (MSL) evolution. One of the main contributors to the long-term sea level uncertainties is the correction of the altimeter range from the wet troposphere path delay, which is provided by onboard microwave radiometers for the main altimeter missions. The wet troposphere correction (WTC) derived from the operational European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecast (ECMWF) atmospheric model is usually used as a reference for comparison with the radiometer WTC. However, due to several improvements in the processing, this model is not homogenous over the altimetry period (from 1993 onwards), preventing the detection of errors in the radiometer WTC, especially in the first altimetry decade. In this study, we determine the quality of WTC provided by the operational ECMWF atmospheric model in comparison with the fields derived from the ERA-Interim (ECMWF) and the National Centers for Environmental Predictions/National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCEP/NCAR) reanalyses. Separating our analyses on several temporal and spatial scales, we demonstrate that ERA-Interim provides the best modeled WTC for the altimeter sea level at climate scales. This allows us to better evaluate the radiometer WTC errors, especially for the first altimetry decade (1993)(1994)(1995)(1996)(1997)(1998)(1999)(2000)(2001)(2002), and thus to improve the altimeter MSL error budget. This work also demonstrates the relevance of the interactions between the "altimetry" and "atmosphere" communities, since the expertise of each is of benefit to the other.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluation of wet troposphere path delays from atmospheric reanalyses and radiometers and their impact on the altimeter sea level

2014

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“…Typically the antennas rotate in order to view the observational target (e.g., Earth), cold space, and an internal blackbody calibration source. The instrument uses the cold and hot targets for internal calibration that allows for measurement accuracy to sub-K levels [13]. As the current fleet of satellites ages, and with the goal of improved spatial and temporal weather measurements [14], recent research has focused on developing miniaturized microwave radiometers to fly on constellations of small satellites.…”

Section: B Passive Microwave Radiometrymentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessment of Radiometer Calibration With GPS Radio Occultation for the MiRaTA CubeSat Mission

Marinan

Cahoy

Bishop

et al. 2016

IEEE J. Sel. Top. Appl. Earth Observations Remote Sensing

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Abstract-The microwave radiometer technology acceleration (MiRaTA) is a 3U CubeSat mission sponsored by the NASA Earth Science Technology Office. The science payload on MiRaTA consists of a triband microwave radiometer and global positioning system (GPS) radio occultation (GPSRO) sensor. The microwave radiometer takes measurements of all-weather temperature (Vband, 50-57 GHz), water vapor (G-band, 175-191 GHz), and cloud ice (G-band, 205 GHz) to provide observations used to improve weather forecasting. The Aerospace Corporation's GPSRO experiment, called the compact total electron content and atmospheric GPS sensor (CTAGS), measures profiles of temperature and pressure in the upper troposphere/lower stratosphere (∼20 km) and electron density in the ionosphere (over 100 km). The MiRaTA mission will validate new technologies in both passive microwave radiometry and GPSRO: 1) new ultracompact and low-power technology for multichannel and multiband passive microwave radiometers, 2) the application of a commercial off-the-shelf GPS receiver and custom patch antenna array technology to obtain neutral atmospheric GPSRO retrieval from a nanosatellite, and 3) a new approach to space-borne microwave radiometer calibration using adjacent GPSRO measurements. In this paper, we focus on objective 3, developing operational models to meet a mission goal of 100 concurrent radiometer and GPSRO measurements, and estimating the temperature measurement precision for the CTAGS instrument based on thermal noise Based on an analysis of thermal noise of the CTAGS instrument, the expected temperature retrieval precision is between 0.17 and 1.4 K, which supports the improvement of radiometric calibration to 0.25 K.

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“…The basic system architecture is identical to several on-orbit systems (AMSU, Aquarius, Microwave Limb Sounder, etc.) 13 . The principal challenge of developing a radiometer payload for a CubeSat is the high level of integration necessary to meet size, weight, and power (SWaP) requirements.…”

Section: Payload and Radiometer Miniaturizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nanosatellites for earth environmental monitoring: The MicroMAS project

Blackwell

Allen

Galbraith

et al. 2012

2012 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium

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The Micro-sized Microwave Atmospheric Satellite (MicroMAS) is a dual-spinning 3U CubeSat equipped with a passive microwave spectrometer that observes nine channels near the 118.75-GHz oxygen absorption line. The focus of this MicroMAS mission (hereafter, MicroMAS-1) is to observe convective thunderstorms, tropical cyclones, and hurricanes from a near-equatorial orbit. The MicroMAS-1 flight unit is currently being developed by MIT Lincoln Laboratory, the MIT Space Systems Laboratory, and the MIT Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences for a 2014 launch to be provided by the NASA CubeSat Launch Initiative program. As a low cost platform, MicroMAS offers the potential to deploy multiple satellites than can provide near-continuous views of severe weather. The existing architecture of few, high-cost platforms, infrequently view the same earth area which can miss rapid changes in the strength and direction of evolving storms thus degrading forecast accuracy. The 3U CubeSat has dimensions of 10 x 10 x 34.05 cm 3 and a mass of approximately 4 kg. The payload is housed in the "lower" 1U of the dualspinning 3U CubeSat, and is mechanically rotated approximately once per second as the spacecraft orbits the Earth. The resulting cross-track scanned beam has a FWHM beam width of 2.4º, and has an approximately 20-km diameter footprint at nadir incidence from a nominal altitude of 500 km. Radiometric calibration is carried out using observations of cold space, the Earth's limb, and an internal noise diode that is weakly coupled through the RF front-end electronics. In addition to the dual-spinning CubeSat, a key technology development is the ultra-compact intermediate frequency processor (IFP) module for channelization, detection, and analog-to-digital conversion. The payload antenna system and RF front-end electronics are highly integrated, miniaturized, and optimized for low-power operation. To support the spinning radiometer payload, the structures subsystem incorporates a brushless DC zerocogging motor, an optical encoder and disk, a slip ring, and a motor controller. The attitude determination and control system (ADCS) utilizes reaction wheels, magnetorquers, Earth horizon sensors, peak power tracking, a magnetometer, and a gyroscope. The communications system operates at S-band using the Open System of Agile Ground Stations (OSAGS) with a 2.025-2.120 GHz uplink and 2.200-2.300 GHz downlink at 230 kbps. MicroMAS-1 uses a Pumpkin CubeSat Motherboard with a Microchip PIC24 microcontroller as the flight computer running Pumpkin's Salvo Real Time Operating System. Thermal management includes monitoring with thermistors, heating, and passive cooling. Power is generated using four double-sided deployable 3U solar panels and one 2U bodymounted panel with UTJ cells and an electrical power system (EPS) with 30 W-hr lithium polymer batteries from Clyde Space. Tests with the MicroMAS-1 Engineering Design Model (EDM) have resulted in modifications to the spinning assembly, stack and ADCS system and have informed the developm...

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On the Long-Term Stability of Microwave Radiometers Using Noise Diodes for Calibration

Cited by 55 publications

References 15 publications

Evaluation of wet troposphere path delays from atmospheric reanalyses and radiometers and their impact on the altimeter sea level

Evaluation of wet troposphere path delays from atmospheric reanalyses and radiometers and their impact on the altimeter sea level

Assessment of Radiometer Calibration With GPS Radio Occultation for the MiRaTA CubeSat Mission

Nanosatellites for earth environmental monitoring: The MicroMAS project

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