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At least 199 records · Page 11
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1972

Correcting airborne scanning infrared radiometer measurements for atmospheric effects

Two techniques were developed for determining atmospheric corrections from observations made by a scanning radiometer. Both techniques depend on knowing the radiometer's limb function. The limb function for an RS-18 scanning radiometer is derived from calculations made with a radiation model and used to demonstrate the techniques. One technique requires observations made over an isothermal water surface within the area being remotely sensed. The other technique does not depend on an isothermal water surface but requires a boat measurement of radiometric sea surface temperature within the area being remotely sensed. The radiation model used to derive the limb function does not account for the effects of atmospheric particulates on the correction. It is hypothesized that the effect of particulates on the limb function derived in this study is negligible, and therefore the technique essentially obtains the total correction. The techniques developed can be used over land provided that a section of isothermal land exists within the experiment area or that a radiometric measurement of surface temperature is made at the surface.

Boudreau, R. D.↗
NASA NTRS1974

Dual frequency microwave radiometer measurements of soil moisture for bare and vegetated rough surfaces

Controlled ground-based passive microwave radiometric measurements on soil moisture were conducted to determine the effects of terrain surface roughness and vegetation on microwave emission. Theoretical predictions were compared with the experimental results and with some recent airborne radiometric measurements. The relationship of soil moisture to the permittivity for the soil was obtained in the laboratory. A dual frequency radiometer, 1.41356 GHz and 10.69 GHz, took measurements at angles between 0 and 50 degrees from an altitude of about fifty feet. Distinct surface roughnesses were studied. With the roughness undisturbed, oats were later planted and vegetated and bare field measurements were compared. The 1.4 GHz radiometer was less affected than the 10.6 GHz radiometer, which under vegetated conditions was incapable of detecting soil moisture. The bare surface theoretical model was inadequate, although the vegetation model appeared to be valid. Moisture parameters to correlate apparent temperature with soil moisture were compared.

Lee, S. L.↗
NASA NTRS1974

Remote sensing of soil moisture with microwave radiometers

Microwave radiometry has been used for the remote sensing of soil moisture in a series of aircraft flights over an agricultural test area in the vicinity of Phoenix, Arizona. The radiometers covered the wavelength range 0.8-21 cm. Ground truth in the form of gravimetric measurements of the soil moisture in the top 15 cm were obtained for 200 fields at this site. The results indicate that it is possible to monitor moisture variations with airborne radiometers. The emission is a function of the radiometer wavelength and the distribution of the moisture in the soil. At a wavelength of 1.55 cm there is little or no variation in the emission for soil moisture values below 10 or 15% moisture content by weight. Above this value, there is a linear decrease in the emission with a slope of approximately 3 K for each percentage point increase in soil moisture.

Schmugge, T.↗
NASA NTRS1974

A balloon-borne cryogenically cooled filter radiometer

The development of a cryogenically cooled filter radiometer for use with high altitude balloons is discussed. The radiometer has features which include the options for remote operation of two filter wheels each containing six filters at helium temperature and a cryogenic rotary chopper which may be run at 200 cycles per second or positioned open or closed, and a remotely operable chopped blackbody calibration source. The radiometer contains a ten inch diameter liquid nitrogen cooled Cassegrain telescope with nine individually filtered field stops in the focal plane. The telescope is mounted on a two-axis servo operated gimbal which is used to make sky scans under the control of an onboard programmer.

Debell, A. G.↗
NASA NTRS1974

Steady-state solution to the conduction problem of a spherical balloon radiometer, phases 1 and 2

A satellite system proposed for observing the earth's radiation balance employing spherical balloon radiometers is investigated. In the steady-state condition of radiative equilibrium, the magnitudes of absorbed external irradiances are sensed by internal radiometers mounted on the skin of each balloon. The temperatures of the radiometers are monitored as a measure of the balloons' internal irradiances (equal to absorbed external irradiances) and telemetered to earth. The effect of the magnitude of irradiant sources, balloon thickness, and thermal conductivity on the conduction of heat is assessed mathematically in order to determine its impact on measurement accuracy. Results indicate that observations are acceptable during daytime and nighttime modes of operation.

House, F. B.↗
NASA NTRS1974

Antennas for spaceborne microwave radiometers

Principles and applications of microwave radiometry to remote sensing of the earth from satellites are reviewed. Examples of some spaceborne radiometer systems currently in use or under consideration are given. The requirements on performance characteristics of microwave antennas for such spaceborne earth sensing radiometers, such as coverage, scanning, spatial resolution, insertion loss, beam efficiency, polarization purity, etc., and their effects on the overall radiometer system performance are discussed.

Shiue, J. C.-C.↗
NASA NTRS1975

S193 radiometer brightness temperature precision/accuracy for SL2 and SL3

The precision and accuracy with which the S193 radiometer measured the brightness temperature of ground scenes is investigated. Estimates were derived from data collected during Skylab missions. Homogeneous ground sites were selected and S193 radiometer brightness temperature data analyzed. The precision was expressed as the standard deviation of the radiometer acquired brightness temperature. Precision was determined to be 2.40 K or better depending on mode and target temperature.

Pounds, D. J.↗
NASA NTRS1976

Remote sensing of soil moisture with microwave radiometers

Results are presented that were derived from measurements made by microwave radiometers during the March 1972 and February 1973 flights of National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Convair-9900 aircraft over agricultural test sites in the southwestern part of United States. The purpose of the missions was to study the use of microwave radiometers for the remote sensing of soil moisture. The microwave radiometers covered the 0.8- to 21-cm wavelength range. The results show a good linear correlation between the observed microwave brightness temperature and moisture content of the 0- to 1-cm layer of the soil. The results at the largest wavelength (21 cm) show the greatest sensitivity to soil moisture variations and indicate the possibility of sensing these variations through a vegetative canopy. The effect of soil texture on the emission from the soil was also studied and it was found that this effect can be compensated for by expressing soil moisture as a percent of field capacity for the soil. The results were compared with calculations based on a radiative transfer model for layered dielectrics and the agreement is very good at the longer wavelengths. At the shorter wavelengths, surface roughness effects are larger and the agreement becomes poorer.

Schmugge, T.↗
NASA NTRS1976

Hand-held spectral radiometer to estimate gramineous biomass

A simple hand-held instrument has been designed and constructed to nondestructively estimate above-ground gramineous biomass using radiometric measurements. The prototype unit consists of a modified two-channel digital radiometer interfaced to a pocket calculator. A digital interface was constructed to join electronically and control the radiometer and calculator to enable the radiometer-calculator system to solve a linear conversion solution from radiometric units to estimated biomass. This instrument has been used to estimate radiometrically gramineous biomass in a more efficient fashion with a high degree of accuracy.

Pearson, R. L.↗
NASA NTRS1975

Techniques for computing regional radiant emittances of the earth-atmosphere system from observations by wide-angle satellite radiometers, phase 3

Radiometers on earth orbiting satellites measure the exchange of radiant energy between the earth-atmosphere (E-A) system and space at observation points in space external to the E-A system. Observations by wideangle, spherical and flat radiometers are analyzed and interpreted with regard to the general problem of the earth energy budget (EEB) and to the problem of determining the energy budget of regions smaller than the field of view (FOV) of these radiometers.

Pina, J. F.↗
NASA NTRS1976

Microwave radiometer for subsurface temperature measurement

A UHF radiometer, operating at a frequency of 800 MHz, was modified to provide an integral, three frequency voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR) circuit in the radio frequency (RF) head. The VSWR circuit provides readings of power transmission at the antenna-material interface with an accuracy of plus or minus 5 percent. The power transmission readings are numerically equal to the emissivity of the material under observation. Knowledge of material emissivity is useful in the interpretation of subsurface apparent temperatures obtained on phantom models of biological tissue. The emissivities of phantom models consisting of lean beefsteak were found to lie in the range 0.623 to 0.779, depending on moisture content. Radiometric measurements performed on instrumented phantoms showed that the radiometer was capable of sensing small temperature changes occurring at depths of at least 19 to 30 mm. This is consistent with previously generated data which showed that the radiometer could sense temperatures at a depth of 38 mm.

Porter, R. A.↗
NASA NTRS1977

Aerosol physical properties in the stratosphere (APPS) radiometer design

The measurement concepts and radiometer design developed to obtain earth-limb spectral radiance measurements for the Aerosol Physical Properties in the Stratosphere (APPS) measurement program are presented. The measurements made by a radiometer of this design can be inverted to yield vertical profiles of Rayleigh scatterers, ozone, nitrogen dioxide, aerosol extinction, and aerosol physical properties, including a Junge size-distribution parameter, and a real and imaginary index of refraction. The radiometer design provides the capacity for remote sensing of stratospheric constituents from space on platforms such as the space shuttle and satellites, and therefore provides for global measurements on a daily basis.

Gray, C. R.↗
NASA NTRS1978

Infrared radiometer for measuring thermophysical properties of wind tunnel models

An infrared radiometer is described which was developed to measure temperature rises of wind tunnel models undergoing transient heating over a temperature range of -17.8 C to 260 C. This radiometer interfaces directly with a system which measures the effective thermophysical property square root of rho ck. It has an output temperature fluctuation of 0.26 C at low temperatures and 0.07 C at high temperatures, and the output frequency response of the radiometer is from dc to 400 hertz.

Corwin, R. R.↗
NASA NTRS1978

Radiometer system to map the cosmic background radiation

A 33-GHz airborne radiometer system has been developed to map large angular scale variations in the temperature of the 3 K cosmic background radiation. A ferrite circulator switches a room-temperature mixer between two antennas pointing 60 deg apart in the sky. In 40 min of observing, the radiometer can measure the anisotropy of the microwave background with an accuracy of plus or minus 1 mK rms, or about 1 part in 3000 of 3 K. The apparatus is flown in a U-2 jet to 20 km altitude where 33-GHz thermal microwave emission from the atmosphere is at a low level. A second radiometer, tuned to 54 GHz near oxygen emission lines, monitors spurious signals from residual atmospheric radiation. The antennas, which have an extremely low side-lobe response of less than -65 dB past 60 deg, reject anisotropic radiation from the earth's surface. Periodic interchange of the antenna positions and reversal of the aircraft's flight direction cancel equipment-based imbalances. The system has been operated successfully in U-2 aircraft flown from NASA-Ames at Moffett Field, Calif.

Gorenstein, M. V.↗
NASA NTRS1979

DSN water vapor radiometer: Tropospheric range delay calibration

A discussion is presented of the Deep Space Network water vapor radiometer by means of simultaneous antenna temperature and radiosonde measurements at Edwards Air Force Base. The calibration of radiometer gain and hot load radiometric noise temperature is also described. Calibration equations are given. It is found that with a selected data set, the RMS error is less than 1 cm over a total delay range of 9 to 38 cm. Limitations on the use of the water vapor radiometer are also given.

Slobin, S. D.↗
NASA NTRS1978

Aperture and detector cavity considerations for wide and medium field-of-view radiometers

Design constraints regarding the ERBSS nonscanning radiometers are related to the necessity to exclude, as much as possible, unwanted radiation from the detectors. The usual approach to accomplish this is to provide an aperture which is both blackened and serrated on its interior surfaces. However, such an approach is not entirely satisfactory for a number of reasons. A somewhat different method to aperture design is, therefore, considered. This method minimizes the three sources of unwanted radiation and alleviates also the problem of aperture temperature variations. To achieve the potential accuracy of the considered type of radiometer, it is essential to design the cavity in such a way that any entering photon will experience at least five reflections before it is allowed to exit the radiometer. A number of feasible cavity configurations are considered.

Babcock, R. A.↗
NASA NTRS1979

An airborne remote sensing 4.5 to 7.2 gigahertz stepped frequency microwave radiometer

A microwave stepped frequency radiometer operating from 4.5 to 7.2 gigahertz has been designed, fabricated and flight tested in an airborne remote sensing mission by NASA Langley Research Center. This paper describes the design of this precision microwave Dicke-switched noise feedback radiometer, calibration techniques and presents typical results from remote sensing mission employing this radiometer.

Harrington, R. F.↗
NASA NTRS1979

Multiband radiometer for field research

A multiband radiometer for field research with 8 bands between 0.4 and 12.5 micrometers is described. The data acquisition system will record the results from the radiometer, a precision radiation thermometer, and ancillary sources. The radiometer and data handling systems will be adaptable to helicopter, truck, to tripod platforms; the system will also be suitable for portable hand-held operation. The general characteristics of this system are that it will be (1) inexpensive to acquire, maintain, and operate, (2) simple to calibrate, (3) complete with data handling hardware and software, and (4) well-documented for use by researchers.

Robinson, B. F.↗