An efficient technique for determining apparent temperature distributions from antenna temperature measurements

A method by which the apparent microwave temperature characteristic of a flat scene is estimated from dual polarized measurements is derived and interpreted. Approximate linear relationships between antenna and apparent temperatures are established by weighting emission components in spherical bands under the assumption that the surface is isotropic. The weighting factors are formed by integrating the antenna pattern functions over these bands. The vector aspect of the formulation is retained to account for the difference between the definition of the antenna polarizations and the polarizations of the emitted fields. The method is largely applicable to the measurement of smooth temperature distributions by an antenna having good spatial resolution of the distributions and is considered efficient for inverting large volumes of measurements. Sample cases are presented and the implications of these cases on remote radiometer observations are discussed. It is shown that cross-coupling occurs between the polarizations of the emitted fields and the polarizations of the antenna. For this reason and because practical antennas have cross-polarized patterns associated with them, it is necessary to conduct measurements at both horizontal and vertical polarizations to realize the inversion. It is also made evident that thorough inversions require that the apparent temperatures be sampled at a sufficient number of points between nadir and zenith.