Title

Deep-Space Calibration Of The Windsat Radiometer

Keywords

Calibration; Radiometer; WindSat

Abstract

The WindSat microwave polarimetric radiometer consists of 22 channels of polarized brightness temperatures operating at five frequencies: 6.8, 10.7, 18.7, 23.8, and 37.0 GHz. The 10.7-, 18.7-, and 37.0-GHz channels are fully polarimetric (vertical/horizontal, ±45° and left-hand and right-hand circularly polarized) to measure the four Stokes radiometric parameters. The principal objective of this Naval Research Laboratory experiment, which flys on the USAF Coriolis satellite, is to provide the proof of concept of the first passive measurement of ocean surface wind vector from space. This paper presents details of the on-orbit absolute radiometric calibration procedure, which was performed during of a series of satellite pitch maneuvers. During these special tests, the satellite pitch was slowly ramped to +45° (and -45°), which caused the WindSat conical spinning antenna to view deep space during the forward (or aft portion) of the azimuth scan. When viewing the homogeneous and isotropic brightness of space (2.73 K) through both the main reflector and the cold-load calibration reflector, it is possible to determine the absolute calibration of the individual channels and the relative calibration bias between polarimetric channels. Results demonstrate consistent and stable channel calibrations (with very small brightness biases) that exceed the mission radiometric calibration requirements. © 2006 IEEE.

Publication Date

3-1-2006

Publication Title

IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing

Volume

44

Issue

3

Number of Pages

476-495

Document Type

Article

Personal Identifier

scopus

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.1109/TGRS.2005.862499

Socpus ID

33244471769 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/33244471769

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