Sensitivity Analysis and Tipping Calibration of A W-band Radiometer for Radiometric Measurements

Abstract

This paper deals with the sensitivity analysis and tipping calibration of a developed W-band radiometer system for radiometric measurements. Initially the equivalent integration time of the cascaded hardware and software integrators is derived and the radiometer sensitivity is then analyzed based on the established system measurement equation. Secondly, the applicable tipping calibration of the W-band radiometer is investigated and optimized to reduce calibration errors according to the system parameters. Sensitivity measurement and tipping calibration experiments of the developed W-band radiometer are conducted. The preliminary results show that the radiometer sensitivity is 0.51 K with an integration time of 1 s, and the tipping calibration has a better accuracy than the liquid nitrogen calibration, with a maximum difference of 2.5 K between both of the calibration methods.