page_title: Microwave radiometer
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Microwave radiometer / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Microwave spectrum: The black lines show the simulated spectrum (in brightness temperatures TB) for a ground-based receiver; the colored lines are the spectrum obtained from a satellite instrument over the ocean measuring at horizontal (blue) and vertical (red) linear polarization. Solid lines indicate simulations for clear-sky (cloud-free) conditions, dotted lines show a clear-sky case with a single layer liquid cloud. The vertical lines indicate typical frequencies used by satellite sensors like the AMSU radiometer.
context_page_description: A microwave radiometer is a radiometer that measures energy emitted at millimetre-to-centimetre wavelengths known as microwaves. Microwave radiometers are very sensitive receivers designed to measure thermal electromagnetic radiation emitted by atmospheric gases. They are usually equipped with multiple receiving channels in order to derive the characteristic emission spectrum of the atmosphere or extraterrestrial objects. Microwave radiometers are utilized in a variety of environmental and engineering applications, including weather forecasting, climate monitoring, radio astronomy and radio propagation studies.
  Using the microwave spectral range between 1 and 300 GHz provides complementary information to the visible and infrared spectral range. Most importantly, the atmosphere and also vegetation is semi-transparent in the microwave spectral range. This means its components like dry gases, water vapor, or hydrometeors interact with microwave radiation but overall even the cloudy atmosphere is not completely opaque in this frequency range.
  For weather and climate monitoring, microwave radiometers are operated from space as well as from the ground.
context_section_description: First developments of microwave radiometer were dedicated to the measurement of radiation of extraterrestrial origin in the 1930s and 1940s. The most common form of microwave radiometer was introduced by Robert Dicke in 1946 in the Radiation Laboratory of Massachusetts Institute of Technology to better determine the temperature of the microwave background radiation. This first radiometer worked at a wavelength 1.25 cm and was operated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dicke also first discovered weak atmospheric absorption in the MW using three different radiometers (at wavelengths of 1.0, 1.25 and 1.5 cm).
  Soon after satellites were first used for observing the atmosphere, MW radiometers became part of their instrumentation. In 1962 the Mariner-2 mission was launched by NASA in order to investigate the surface of Venus including a radiometer for water vapor and temperature observations. In following years a wide variety of microwave radiometers were tested on satellites. The launch of the Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer in 1978 became an important milestone in the history of radiometry. It was the first time a conically scanning radiometer was used in space; it was launched into space on board the NASA Nimbus satellite. The launch of this mission gave the opportunity to image the Earth at a constant angle of incidence that is important as surface emissivity is angle dependent. In the beginning of 1980, new multi-frequency, dual-polarization radiometric instruments were developed. Two spacecraft were launched which carried instruments of this type: Nimbus-7 and Seasat. The Nimbus-7 mission results allowed to globally monitor the state of ocean surface as well as surface covered by snow and glaciers. Today, microwave instruments like the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU) and the Special Sensor Microwave Imager / Sounder (SSMIS) are widely used on different satellites.
  Ground-based radiometers for the determination of temperature profiles were first explored in the 1960s and have since improved in terms of reduced noise and the ability to run unattended 24/7 within worldwide observational networks. Review articles, and a detailed online handbook  are available.
caption: Microwave spectrum: The black lines show the simulated spectrum for a ground-based receiver; the colored lines are the spectrum obtained from a satellite instrument over the ocean measuring at horizontal (blue) and vertical (red) linear polarization. Solid lines indicate simulations for clear-sky (cloud-free) conditions, dotted lines show a clear-sky case with a single layer liquid cloud. The vertical lines indicate typical frequencies used by satellite sensors like the AMSU radiometer.
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