CISESS Microwave Radiometer Seed Grant Results

Student-Built Level-1 K-Band Microwave Radiometer

© Hu Yang

Developing a Low-Cost Microwave Radiometer for Student Training and Supporting JPSS Programs

CISESS Scientists Hu Yang and Jun Dong worked with student interns Samatha Smith, Feng Pei Zhang, Richard Zhou, Chao-Wei Tu and Zhuo-Yu Yang, and with Electrical Engineer Doug Baker, to build a working microwave radiometer. The goal was to let students get hands-on learning of an important satellite instrument. Students learned the skills required for microwave instrument development, includiung hands-on skills of electronic circuit design and development, software and hardware programming, as well as the instrument performance evaluation and testing.

They developed a dual-mode microwave radiometer and tested it in the Lab and outside. The instrument is designed with center frequency of 22GHz and can be used for atmosphere water vapor observations. The signal is collected by the antenna and turned on and off by the switch. When the switch is on, the detected signal contains background noise and scene signal. When the switch is off, the detected signal contains background noise and a reference signal. We take the difference between the detected signal when the switch is on and when the switch is off to remove the noise and restore the water vapor information. With the support of the 2021 Seed Grant, some details of digital detector based on high-speed (analog to digital converter) ADC and (field-programmable gate array) FPGA have also been investigated.

This Seed Grant also funded the development of the new CISESS Remote Sensing Laboratory.

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