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This paper presents measurements using a dual-polarised radiometer operating at 93 GHz to detect ice or water on asphalt in laboratory conditions. The brightness temperatures of both H and V polarizations were measured for a dry surface, liquid water, and ice on asphalt at observation angles of 50° and 56°. The results presented in this paper demonstrate that the studied road conditions can be identified by the radiometer. The measurements are compared with a model and surface parameters, such as dielectric constant and roughness are fitted and compared to reference values. The experiments and results, described in this article, are the first steps towards the future installation of a polarimetric sensor on a moving vehicle for traffic safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The history of far-infrared spectroscopy from its beginning to around 1970 is reviewed. Before World War II, the size of the community investigating this topic was limited. During this period, in particular before 1925, about 90% of the papers were published by H. Rubens and his co-workers in Germany. One or two researchers from the US joined the Rubens group per year from 1890 to the beginning of 1910. During the next year or two, some researchers joined M. Czerny, who is seen as the successor of Rubens. After World War II, far-infrared techniques progressed further in the US, which did not suffer damage during the war. The advanced techniques of far-infrared grating spectroscopy were transferred from the US (R. A. Oetjen) to Japan (H. Yoshinaga). Yoshinaga and his co-workers expanded the techniques by themselves. This paper describes the historical development of far-infrared spectroscopy before Fourier transform spectroscopy became popular around 1970. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Millimeter wave passive imaging systems constitute a good compromise between resolution and penetration depth for a variety of imaging applications. In an outdoor scenario, the cold sky radiation, interacting with the reflectivity characteristics of the targets, constitutes the main source of contrast in the acquired images. In indoor applications such a source is not available, and higher thermal sensitivity is required. Alternatively, one has to provide an artificial illumination to the scene in order to increase its dynamic range. The implementation of an active source for a passive radiometer can, under certain conditions, increase the contrast of the images acquired and add extra information to the measurement. With such a setup, outdoor systems can be used for indoor observations (the absence of cold sky radiation is compensated with active illumination). The subject of our study is to better understand which kind of source and which setup can provide a diffuse illumination over the targets. This topic was investigated by conducting observations of various indoor scenes with two radiometers in the W-Band, using noise and continuous wave (CW) sources as illumination. In this paper we present the results achieved and our conclusions in order to provide an efficient illumination for indoor environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Working all day and all weather, a passive millimeter wave radiometer (PMMW) can be widely used in civil and military affairs. It can get some specific information about the material characteristics different from radar and infrared detectors. On basis of the radiometric operating range equation, the radiation cross section and stealth effect of metal objects are presented for the PMMW near-sensing application. The measurement experiments of metal solid models adopts 3 mm band Dicke radiometer with the outdoor calibration system. The sky temperature and other different surface metal objects are also measured as the contrastive experiments. The results show the radiometric temperature contrasts of solid models have remarkable difference in the bare and coated conditions, and the radiometric operating range can decrease to 60.8 %. In addition, the PMMW stealth methods through different surface treatment respectively reduce the radiometric antenna temperature contrast in some degree. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Millimeter-wave (MMW) technologies can provide unique heating and diagnostic capabilities to research the thermal dynamics of materials to extreme temperatures. The MMW properties of rocks in the molten state up to their vaporization temperatures are not well known. Using a 28 GHz gyrotron beam collinear with a 130 GHz radiometry view in a calorimetric chamber, the transitions of granite rock specimens through solid phases, melting, and vaporization were observed, including release of trapped trace gas (<0.07%). The 28 GHz emissivity of molten granite was observed to be approximately constant at 0.66 ± 0.03 up to vaporization where it increased to 0.70 ± 0.03 at an equilibrated temperature of 2710 ± 120°C. An analysis of the thermal power balance during a 76 s steady state vaporization time period indicates that the MMW emissivity of the molten granite is larger than in the infrared. The observations support the possibility that MMW thermal ablative penetration into hot crystalline rock formations could be a more practical approach than infrared laser drilling to access deep resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

frequencies of between 100 GHz and 30 THz, propagation conditions are severely affected by the influence of the composition and phenomena of the troposphere. This paper focuses on the use of radiometric measurements to estimate attenuation at 100 and 300 GHz, considering non-scattering scenarios, in which the main contributions are given by atmospheric gases and non-rainy clouds. These techniques allow the estimation of the absorption loss through the entire atmosphere, without the need for a signal source situated in a satellite or a high altitude aircraft. On the basis of well-accepted absorption models, the results of calculating gaseous, cloud, and total attenuation using 3-year meteorological data from Madrid, Spain, are detailed, as well as estimates of the expected values of the sky brightness temperature as measured by the radiometer. Finally, based on the results obtained, a discussion on the use of radiometric measurements at both frequencies is presented, in connection with an experimental campaign currently under preparation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper mainly deals with the problem of detecting and identifying target in close range, the performance of which will be effected by the radiometer's parameters and target's characteristics. According to the relationship between the range equation of the Passive Millimeter Wave (PMMW) and these parameters, we present a convenient statistical method based on PMMW image detection to solve the inherent problem by statistical radiometer parameters, which can be achieved by the W band radiometer experimental data. Finally, we validate the method by simulation and experiment. The results show that the method is convenient for detecting and identifying target in close range. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the sub-millimeter wave propagation process, attenuation is mainly due to the effects of atmospheric particles, such as water vapor. It's also caused by absorption and scattering by hydrometeors. This paper focuses on the effects of hydrometeors on sub-millimeter wave propagation. The formula for calculating the attenuation cross-section of raindrops is given, as well as the distance formula of sub-millimeter wave radiometers. Finally, this paper mentions the effects of some weather phenomena on detection distance of sub-millimeter wave radiometers. Taking cloud attenuation as an example, the relation between distance and temperature or moisture content is analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]