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MICROWAVE RADIOMETER MEASUREMENTS

For further information please contact: Markus Peichl and Stephan Dill DLR (German Aerospace Center), Institute of Radio Frequency Technology and Radar Systems Oberpfaffenhofen, 82234 Wessling, Germany Phone: +49-8153-28-2390, -2352, Fax: +49-8153-281135 E-mail: markus.peichl@dlr.de , stephan.dill@dlr.de

1. Phenomenological background of radiometric measurements

Basically, radiometers are very sensitive high amplifying frequency selective receivers. In contrast to radar they do not send any artificial signal but work in an receive-only mode and therefore cannot be used for range measurements in a similar way. The high sensitivity allows the measurement of variations of the naturally generated thermal radiation emitted of matter with a physical temperature above 0K. This radiation usually is composed of many contributions like the self emission of the observed object and the reflection and transmission of elsewhere similar generated radiation. For Earth observation, the reflectivity contrast of the observed object in comparison to the background is of major interest because of the radiometric cold, i.e. low power, behaviour of the sky radiation due to its cosmic origin. Furthermore, variations in thermal flux for different matter shows up in variations of physical temperature and consequently in different self-emission contributions. The signal character of the thermal radiation can be treated mathematically as Gaussian white noise and the signals from different space directions sum up incoherent at the receiver antenna terminal. Therefore no fading phenomena occur due to lateral antenna movement. Because of its noisy and incoherent character, radiometers measure just the power of the observable radiation which is usually expressed in apparent brightness temperatures following the Rayleigh-Jeans law. For an antenna with a normalized power pattern P with Pi 1, the rather complicated observed antenna temperature TA at the antenna terminals can be simply expressed as shown in fig. 1.

Fig. 1: Contributions to the observable antenna temperature in radiometric measurements for mine detection. whereby i denotes the contribution of the ith radiation source within the antenna beam, and ei, ri, and ti are the emissivity, reflectivity and transmittivity of the matter along the path in direction i, with ei+ri+ti = 1 because of energy conservation. T0i is the physical temperature, TSi is an apparent temperature of the surroundings reflected toward the radiometer antenna, e.g. the sky brightness temperature, and TBi is the apparent temperature

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from the background behind the object in the case of a partly microwave-transparent object and object layer. Ti is the apparent brightness temperature which could be observed by the radiometer in the case of a Dirac-function-like antenna pattern. Note that each quantity usually is dependent on the observation direction i, the frequency, and the polarization. The range of Ti varies typically between about 3K to 300K for completely reflective or absorptive matter as in the case of an extended flat metal plate, behaving as a mirror and reflecting perfectly the cosmic background radiation, or as a microwave absorber, behaving as a blackbody and emmitting purely the physical temperature radiation. The lateral ground resolution in x, y for radiometer systems is usually dependent on the size of the antenna collecting all by Pi weighted contributions within its field of view (FOV). Consequently high resolution radiometer systems for longer distances are mainly restricted to millimeter waves (MMW) due to a moderate antenna size requirement. Due to the insufficient penetration depth of MMWs for typical mine detection scenarios we have to use frequencies in the lower microwave (MW) region. Here we apply the microwave sensors in a downright near-field application because of the lower spatial resolution at these wavelengths for a given antenna size. The temperature resolution or sensitivity of a simple radiometer system for mine detection can be made to about 1K or less which altogether is adequate for practical situations. Hence the brightness temperature contrast of an object against its surrounding background has to be slightly higher in the order of several Kelvin for a reliable discrimination. Consequently an isolated object can be detected, even if its size is smaller than the FOV of the antenna beam, provided its original contrast against the surrounding background is high enough. Following these predications made before we consider for the mine detection a near-field operation and the use of multiple center frequencies of lower bandwidth spreaded within a broadband reception area. The idea behind that is a considerable enhancement of the information content comprehended in the different interaction of electromagnetic waves with layered media over several octaves of wavelengths. Experiments have shown an additional advantage of narrow-band spectral measurements within a broadband range by the capability of freely selecting those frequencies which are not disturbed by electronical smog like television, broadcasting, telecommunications, radars, or aggregates. Further general readings on microwave radiometry can be found in references [1], [2], and [3].

2. Description of the radiometer system

The current version of the multi-frequency mine detection radiometer system has four channels and operates according to the total-power principle. A block diagram of the receiver and the supporting control and data acqusition equipment is shown in fig. 2.

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Fig. 2: Block diagram of the radiometer receiver and the supporting control and data acquisition equipment. The incoming thermal radiation is collected by a broadband antenna of Vivaldi type. The antenna is connected via an electronic calibration switch to a first low-noise and broadband amplifier stage. The switch allows to toggle between several radiation sources like another Vivaldi antenna pointed to the sky during the measurements and a 50 load as two reference sources of known brightness temperatures. The sky antenna is connecetd via a low-attenuation cable to the switch and acts as a cold source measuring the cosmic background radiation close to 3K. The 50 load is connecetd directly to the switch and acts a blackbody radiating thermal power according to his physical temperature of around 300K. The broadband and low-noise amplifier stage is followed by a filterbank which allows electronically the selection between four different narrowband frequency channels. After a second amplification the high frequency noise signal is rectified by a detector diode. The main output of the detector is a DC voltage proportional to the high frequency power at the calibration switch inputs. A residual inherent baseband noise around the further amplified DC signal is finally low-pass filtered, i.e. temporary integrated, to increase the receiver sensitivity. The technical data of the radiometer receiver are summarized in table 1.

Center frequency [GHz] System bandwidth (3dB) [MHz] Receiver noise temperature [K] Theoretical sensitivity (RMS) [K] Calibration accuracy (without antenna effects) [K]

2.1 50 270 0.92 4

2.8 116 250 0.59 4

3.5 216 260 0.45 4

4.6 190 300 0.49 4

Table 1: Technical data of the radiometer receiver The final analog receiver output is connected to a data acquisiton board integrated in a personal computer (PC). The board performs controlled analog to digital (A/D) conversion of the analog signal and provides digital control signals for the calibration switch and the filter bank. Furthermore the board allows the evaluation of digital input signals for triggering on the start and stop events for the data acquisition. The PC runs the main software for the overall measurement procedure and stores the data on the hard disc.

3. Description of the measurement procedure

The radiometer receiver together with both antennas is mounted on a computer controlled x-y positioning system performing an accurate raster scan across the ground area to be observed. In y direction the positioning is done step by step and no movement is carried out during the ground data acquisition. In x direction the movement is continuously at a constant speed during this phase. On the left and the right side of the x axis two digital signals are provided, the first one for indicating the start and stop or vice versa of the area to be measured, and the second one for displaying the movement direction. For both sides the first bit indicates simultaneously that time when the acceleration phase of the positioning system is finished and the constant speed range has been reached. A photograph of the arrangement is shown in fig. 3. On the leading edge of the first bit the data acquisition is started at a constant rate ensuring a proper sampling density for each of the sequentially toggled frequencies according to the movement velocity in x direction. On the opposite side of the x axis the data acquisition then is stopped using again the first bit value reversal. The initial integration time of the radiometer is set very low to allow the detection of fast signal changes. The final higher integration time is generated by oversampling each frequency as many times as necessary to achieve the required sensitivity. All these settings are kept constant during the whole measurements. Outside the constant velocity range, i.e. at the decceleration and acceleration phases at the left and right turning points, the calibration data are acquired by switching to the sky antenna and the 50 load for each frequency. For each x line the whole procedure is repeated until the preset end of the y axis is reached.

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4. Description of the calibration procedure

Although for detection purposes the data calibration is not primarily necessary, it is performed off-line during the data processing for further more detailed investigations. Usually the calibration procedure follows the Hot-cold method where the brightness temperatures of the two known reference sources are set directly in a linear relationship to the corresponding measured voltages. From this the two coefficients for the linear conversion equation can then be computed. In our case and in order to guarantee a certain accuracy the procedure to be applied is more complicated. The different physical switch settings of the calibration switch and the different connecting cables for the ground and the sky antennas introduce additional frequency dependent losses into the different signal pathes. Furthermore the frequency dependent power mismatches at each port cause multiple reflections of the incoming as well as the receivers own generated thermal noise signals. Both factors falsify the calibration up to tens of Kelvin depending on the magnitudes of attenuations and mismatches. In order to enhance the calibration accuracy a detailed model of the receivers real structure has to be generated and the according two-port transfer functions have to be measured accurately over the frequency. In our case this procedure is carried out and applied to the determination of a new calibration equation. In order to estimate the accuracy of this enhanced method a worst case analysis taking into account the maximum errors in the determination of the new conversion coefficients is perfomed. For the current situation this estimation allows the receiver calibration of the measured data within 4 Kelvin accuracy as already indicated in table 1. A second source of calibration error is introduced by the wide-angle and multiple-sidelobe behaviour of the used Vivaldi antennas and their own frequency dependent attenuation. Although the ground antenna is operated in the near field, there is some radiation received from the surrounding which adds an unknown frequency dependent amount to the observed ground radiation. Furthermore the same holds for the sky antenna with the only exception of operating in the far field. Additionally, for both the unknown amount of received surrounding radiation can change by the sensor displacement during the scanning. In summary, these second antenna related error sources introduce an additional unknown calibration uncertainty, which can hardly be estimated and might as well be in the order of a few ten Kelvin.

5. References
[1] Ulaby F.T., Moore R.K., Fung A.K., Microwave Remote Sensing - Active and Passive - Microwave Remote Sensing Fundamentals and Radiometry, Vol. I, Addison-Wesley, Reading, 1981. [2] Skou N.: Microwave Radiometer Systems: Design and Analysis, Artech House, 1989. [3] Peichl M., S H., Dill S., Greiner M., Zeiler M., Todays imaging technologies and applications of microwave radiometry, German Radar Symposium GRS 2000, Berlin, Germany, 11-12 October 2000.

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