MICROWAVE INSTRUMENTS AND METHODS

G.E. Peckham
Department of Physics
Heriot-Watt University
Edinburgh EH14 4AS

ABSTRACT. Microwave methods for the remote sensing of the atmosphere

and of the earth's surface from satellites include: nadir sounding,
limb sounding, radiometry for surface properties and for atmospheric
liquid water and integrated water vapour, scatterometry, altimetry
and synthetic aperture radar. The principles of these methods are
described together with some possible future developments. A brief
survey of the techniques of microwave instrumentation includes the
following topics: antennas, the available sources of microwave
power, receivers, the calibration of radiometers, spectrum analysis
and radars.

1. INTRODUCTION

The microwave atmospheric transmission spectrum in the range 10 to

300 GHz (Fig. 1.1.1) is dominated by absorption bands due to oxygen
at 60 and 119 GHz and water vapour at 22, 183 and 325 GHz. Water
vapour continuum absorption increases with frequency and throughout
the range many minor constituents such as ozone show narrow
absorption lines which are readily resolved by microwave receivers.
In window regions between major absorption features (below 20 GHz and
around 35, 90, 140 and 220 GHz) the atmosphere is relatively
transparent so that surface properties are readily observable from
space. Microwaves have the advantage in many applications of being
far less scattered and absorbed by cloud than infrared or visible
radiation.
Microwave remote sensing instruments may be passive radiometers
recording the intensity of thermal radiation (reviewed by Staelin,
1969) or may be active radars. Passive systems are used to determine
the temperature of the atmosphere or sea surface, to measure the
concentrations of absorbing species including rain in the atmosphere,
and to obtain information about ice, snow cover and sea state.
Active systems have been used to measure ocean wave spectra, the
height of the ocean surface to such precision that ocean currents may
be mapped and to record images of ocean and land surfaces. Microwave
remote sensing techniques are described in some detail by Ulaby et
al. (1981).
87

R. A. Vaughan (ed.). Remote Sensing Applications in Meteorology and Climatology, 87-106.

© 1987 by D. Reidel Publishing Company.
88 G. E. PECKHAM

10

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FREQUENCY (GHz)

Fig. 1.1.1. Millimeter wave atmospheric zenith absorption spectrum

(Waters, 1976).

2.1. Atmospheric Radiometry: Nadir Sounding

Radiometers, sensitive to frequencies within the 60 GHz oxygen

absorption band, may be used to measure the vertical temperature
profile of the atmosphere. Height resolved information can be
obtained from instruments looking vertically downward from a
satellite toward the earth's surface. Radiation emerging from the
atmosphere at a particular frequency originates from an atmospheric
layer whose altitude depends on the absorption coefficient.
Radiation from lower altitudes is reabsorbed while the rapid decrease
in air density with altitude limits the radiation emitted at high
altitudes. A vertical temperature profile may be retrieved from
measurements made by a multichannel radiometer, each channel of which
is sensitive to radiation of a different frequency within the oxygen
band.
A similar multichannel instrument operated in the 183 GHz water
vapour band may be used to determine the vertical distribution of
water vapour in an atmosphere whose temperature is known. (The
atmosphere is too transparent to achieve this in the 22 GHz band, but
instruments operating in this part of the spectrum can measure the
integrated water vapour amount over the sea).