Verification of L-band Fully Polarimetric Noise Injection Radiometer Measurement Capability

Abstract A functional test to verify the proper and accurate measurement capability of an L-band fully polarimetric noise injection radiometer is presented. The test is designed specifically for the MDPP-2 (MIRAS Demonstrator Pilot Project 2) NIR (Noise Injection Radiometer), which has two functions: (1) to calibrate the MIRAS (Microwave Imaging Radiometer using Aperture Synthesis) instrument by measuring a noise source and (2) to measure the brightness temperature of the target scene with fully polarimetric capability i.e. to measure the modified Stokes parameters. The second one is discussed in this paper. The calibration procedure using the sky as the reference source is briefly described and a measurement simulating the actual brightness temperature scene measurement is introduced and the uncertainties involved are discussed.