TEMPEST-D Radiometer: Instrument Description and Prelaunch Calibration

• Published in: IEEE transactions on geoscience and remote sensing Vol. 59; no. 12; pp. 10213 - 10226
• Main Authors: Padmanabhan, Sharmila, Gaier, Todd C., Tanner, Alan B., Brown, Shannon T., Lim, Boon H., Reising, Steven C., Stachnik, Robert, Bendig, Rudi, Cofield, Richard
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01.12.2021; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Antennas; Background radiation; Beams (radiation); Big Bang theory; Blackbody; Calibration; Clouds; Cosmic microwave background; CubeSat; direct-detection receiver; Earth orbit; Earth orbits; Incidence angle; Indium; Instruments; Low earth orbits; microwave; Microwave imagery; Microwave radiation; Microwave radiometry; Millimeter wave measurements; Millimeter wave technology; Millimeter wave transistors; Millimeter waves; millimeter-wave; monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC); Phosphides; Power consumption; precipitation; radiometer; Radiometers; Scanning; Storms; Transistors; Tropical climate
• ISSN: 0196-2892; 1558-0644
• DOI: 10.1109/TGRS.2020.3041455

The Temporal Experiment for Storms and Tropical Systems Technology Demonstration (TEMPEST-D) instrument is a five-frequency millimeter-wave radiometer operating from 87 to 181 GHz. The cross-track scanning radiometer has been operating on a 6U CubeSat in low Earth orbit since September 5, 2018. The direct-detection architecture of the radiometer reduces its mass and power consumption by eliminating the need for a local oscillator and mixer, also reducing system complexity. The instrument includes a scanning reflector and ambient calibration target. The reflector rotates continuously to scan the antenna beams in the cross-track direction, first across the blackbody calibration target, then toward the Earth over the full range of incidence angles, and finally to cosmic microwave background radiation at 2.73 K. This enables precision end-to-end calibration of the millimeter-wave receivers during every 2-s scan period. The TEMPEST-D millimeter-wave radiometers are based on 35-nm indium phosphide (InP) high-electron-mobility transistor (HEMT) low-noise amplifiers. This article describes the instrument and its characterization prior to launch.