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The Aquarius Simulator and Cold-Sky Calibration
- Source :
- IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing. 49:3198-3210
- Publication Year :
- 2011
- Publisher :
- Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), 2011.
-
Abstract
- A numerical simulator has been developed to study remote sensing from space in the spectral window at 1.413 GHz (L-band), and it has been used to optimize the cold-sky calibration (CSC) for the Aquarius radiometers. The celestial sky is a common cold reference in microwave radiometry. It is currently being used by the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity satellite, and it is planned that, after launch, the Aquarius/SAC-D observatory will periodically rotate to view “cold sky” as part of the calibration plan. Although radiation from the celestial sky is stable and relatively well known, it varies with location. In addition, radiation from the Earth below contributes to the measured signal through the antenna back lobes and also varies along the orbit. Both effects must be taken into account for a careful calibration. The numerical simulator has been used with the Aquarius configuration (antennas and orbit) to investigate these issues and determine optimum conditions for performing a CSC. This paper provides an overview of the simulator and the analysis leading to the selection of the optimum locations for a CSC.
- Subjects :
- Radiometer
Meteorology
media_common.quotation_subject
Astrophysics::Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Astrophysics::Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics
Observatory
Sky
Calibration
Orbit (dynamics)
General Earth and Planetary Sciences
Radiometry
Environmental science
Satellite
Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Antenna (radio)
Astrophysics::Galaxy Astrophysics
Simulation
media_common
Remote sensing
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 15580644 and 01962892
- Volume :
- 49
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi...........5e5e504da249902f2a19afc4041696f9