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Microwave Radiometry

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 January 2010

C. R. Ditchfield
Affiliation:
(Royal Radar Establishment)

Extract

Before considering in detail the instrumentation involved, it is necessary to establish first of all what is meant by microwave radiometry and mention briefly its possible applications. A radiometer is a device for measuring heat radiation and the title ‘Microwave Radiometry’ is a little surprising in that it implies heat radiation at microwave frequencies. In fact a consideration of the underlying physics shows that heat radiation and electrical thermal noise are indeed the same phenomenon, although their properties were investigated independently by physicists and electrical engineers. This concept is particularly valuable in microwave radiometry, where the electronic techniques are appropriate to ultrasensitive noise measurements, but the system applications are most easily visualized in terms of heat, or, more particularly, temperature.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Navigation 1966

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References

REFERENCES

1Southworth, G. C. (1945). Microwave radiation, from the Sun, J. Franklin Inst., 269, 285.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2Dicke, R. H. (1946). The measurement of thermal radiation at microwave frequencies, Rev. Sci. Inst., 17, 268.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed