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Electrical and Electronics

Theses/Dissertations

2009

WindSat

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Full-Text Articles in Engineering

Validation Of Quickscat Radiometer (Qrad) Microwave Brightness Temperture Measurments, Rafik Hanna Jan 2009

Validation Of Quickscat Radiometer (Qrad) Microwave Brightness Temperture Measurments, Rafik Hanna

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

After the launch of NASA's SeaWinds scatterometer in 1999, a radiometer function was implemented in the Science Ground Data Processing Systems to allow the measurement of the earth's microwave brightness temperature. This dissertation presents results of a comprehensive validation to assess the quality of QRad brightness temperature measurements using near-simultaneous ocean Tb comparisons between the SeaWinds on QuikSCAT (QRad) and WindSat polarimetric radiometer on Coriolis. WindSat was selected because it is a well calibrated radiometer that has many suitable collocations with QuikSCAT; and it has a 10.7 GHz channel, which is close to QRad frequency of 13.4 GHz. Brightness temperature …


Simulation Of Brightness Temperatures For The Microwave Radiometer On The Aquarius/Sac-D Mission., Salman Khan Jan 2009

Simulation Of Brightness Temperatures For The Microwave Radiometer On The Aquarius/Sac-D Mission., Salman Khan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Microwave radiometers are highly sensitive receivers capable of measuring low levels of natural blackbody microwave emissions. Remote sensing by satellite microwave radiometers flying on low-earth, polar orbiting, satellites can infer a variety of terrestrial and atmospheric geophysical parameters for scientific and operational applications, such as weather and climate prediction. The objective of this thesis is to provide realistic simulated ocean brightness temperatures for the 3-channel Microwave Radiometer (MWR), which will be launched in May 2010 on the joint NASA/CONAE Aquarius/SAC-D Mission. These data will be used for pre-launch geophysical retrieval algorithms development and validation testing. Analyses are performed to evaluate …