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An Investigation of Antenna Characterization Techniques in Microwave Remote Sensing Calibration

Published

Author(s)

Derek A. Houtz

Abstract

We compare three methods of quantifying illumination efficiency (IE). The ratio IE describes the contribution of energy emitted from a blackbody target to the total energy measured at an antenna aperture in a free-space microwave calibration target radiometric measurement. Measurements are compared at three frequencies: 18 GHz, 22.5 GHz, and 26 GHz. An antenna pattern integration method is compared with a recently developed target-temperature fitting method. These two experimental approaches are also compared to a computational antenna pattern simulation. Results show that the simulation agrees with the experimental fitting method more closely at far-field distances, whereas the antenna pattern integration and experimental fitting method agree at closer distances.
Conference Dates
July 22-27, 2012
Conference Location
Munich
Conference Title
2012 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium

Keywords

Antenna pattern simulation, Blackbody target, Illumination efficiency, Microwave radiometer

Citation

Houtz, D. (2012), An Investigation of Antenna Characterization Techniques in Microwave Remote Sensing Calibration, 2012 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, Munich, -1, [online], https://doi.org/10.1109/IGARSS.2012.6350426 (Accessed April 2, 2025)

Issues

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Created December 31, 2012, Updated January 27, 2020