Microwave Remote Sensing of Planetary Atmospheres: From Staelin and Barrett to the Nasa Juno Mission

Early seminal contributions by Staelin helped initiate the field of microwave remote sensing as a key tool for the study of planetary atmospheres. Recent studies of the microwave emission from the neutral atmosphere of Venus have been used to identify the abundance and spatial distribution of microwave absorbing constituents such as sulfuric acid vapor and sulfur dioxide. A new mission to Jupiter, called Juno, will employ a six-channel microwave radiometer to measure the abundance and distribution of ammonia and water vapor in the Jovian atmosphere.