Calibration and validation for CubeSat Microwave Radiometers

Miniaturized microwave radiometers deployed on nanosatellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) are now demonstrating the ability to provide science-quality weather measurements. For instance, the Micro-sized Microwave Atmospheric Satellite-2A (MicroMAS-2A) is a 3U CubeSat launched in January 2018 that provided the first CubeSat microwave atmospheric sounder data from orbit. The goal of having cost-effective miniature instruments distributed in LEO is to field constellations and improve temporal and geospatial coverage. The Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitations structure and storm Intensity with a Constellation of Smallsats (TROPICS) is a constellation of six 3U CubeSats, based on MicroMAS-2A, scheduled to no earlier than 2020. Each CubeSat hosts a scanning 12-channel passive microwave radiometer in W-band, F-band, and G-band.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctoral

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2019

Author dc:creator

• Crews, Angela B.(Angela Beth)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Kerri Cahoy, Sara Seager, Bill Blackwell and Vince Leslie.

• Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/122368

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/122368