Historical and Planned Uses of Antenna Technology for Space-Borne Microwave Radiometers

Author

Pujara, Dhaval ; Sharma, Shashi Bhushan ; Chakrabarty, S.B.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electron. & Commun. Eng., Nirma Univ., Ahmedabad, India

Volume

53

Issue

3

fYear

2011

fDate

6/1/2011 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

95

Lastpage

114

Abstract

This paper reviews the historical and future uses of antenna technology for space-borne microwave radiometers. The radiometer antennas are discussed, starting from the Dicke-type radiometer, as used in the Microwave Sounder Unit (MSU), to the present-day total-power radiometer. The antennas cater to the need for very high beam efficiencies, of the order of 95% to 98%. The paper also summarizes the specifications, design issues, and the performance of various radiometer antennas.

Keywords

microwave antennas; radiometers; Dicke-type radiometer; antenna technology; microwave sounder unit; radiometer antenna; space-borne microwave radiometers; Horn antennas; Microwave FET integrated circuits; Microwave antennas; Microwave integrated circuits; Microwave radiometry; Space vehicles; Radiometer; antenna radiation patterns; beam efficiency; beamwidth; cross polarization; horn antennas; microwave radiometer; offset reflector antennas; polarimetric radiometer; remote sensing; sidelobes;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Antennas and Propagation Magazine, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1045-9243

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/MAP.2011.6028425

Filename

6028425