Sponsoring Society and Committee: IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society/Standards Committee (GRSS/SC)

Title:Standard for Calibration of Microwave Radiometers in the 300 MHz to 1 THz Frequency Range for Geoscience Applications

Scope: The scope of this standard is the calibration procedures for microwave radiometers for use in geoscience remote sensing applications. The frequency range addressed encompasses 300 MHz to 1 THz. The standard separately addresses:
a) terminology in use in the field of radiometer calibration, such as “absolute uncertainty”, “traceable”, “inter-calibration”, “vicarious calibration” etc.;
b) ground, air-borne, and spaceborne radiometers and their respective calibration techniques;
c) free-space calibration and single-mode (e.g. guided wave) calibrations;
d) calibration of total power, Dicke switched, and differential radiometer architectures;
e) calibration of polarized radiometers, including full Stoke’s radiometers;
f) referencing brightness temperature units to the fundamental unit Kelvin and fundamental constants;
Note that the scope includes radiometers for geoscience applications only and will not address radiometer calibration for use in other fields such as radio-astronomy, medical, or security.