Four-year result of external calibration for Precipitation Radar (PR) of the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite

Author

Takahashi, Nobuhiro ; Kuroiwa, Hiroshi ; Kawanishi, Toneo

Author_Institution

Commun. Res. Lab., Tokyo, Japan

Volume

41

Issue

10

fYear

2003

Firstpage

2398

Lastpage

2403

Abstract

External calibration experiments using active radar calibrator (ARC) were conducted for the calibration of the Precipitation Radar (PR) of the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite from 1998 to 2001. Three modes of ARC operation are used for the experiment: the ARC transmitter mode for the receiver system of PR, the ARC receiver mode for the transmitter of PR, and the transponder mode for the overall system of PR. The experiments were conducted several times a year. The results of the experiments show that the performance of the PR is close to the prelaunch performance and that PR has been working stably for four years.

Keywords

atmospheric measuring apparatus; calibration; remote sensing by radar; spaceborne radar; ARC; Precipitation Radar; TRMM satellite; Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission; active radar calibrator; external calibration; receiver mode; transmitter mode; transponder mode; Calibration; Frequency; Helium; Monitoring; Radar measurements; Radio transmitters; Satellite broadcasting; Spaceborne radar; Transmitting antennas; Transponders;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Geoscience and Remote Sensing, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0196-2892

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TGRS.2003.817180

Filename

1237421