Planar Near-Field Measurements on Radiometer Antennas up to 183 GHz for the Global Precipitation Measurement Satellite
Authors: Andrew Shroyer, Ray Lovestead and Eric Darnel
Publication: AMTA 2010
Copyright Owner: NSI-MI Technologies
The Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission is a satellite based Earth science mission that will study the global precipitation from rain, ice and snow. A critical part of this satellite is the multifrequency radiometer system that covers frequencies up to 183 GHz. Beam pointing and beam efficiency must be measured very accurately to calibrate the radiometer response. This paper will focus on the measurements of the offset reflector antenna operating up to 183 GHz using a Nearfield Systems Inc. (NSI) planar near-field measurement system and the special challenges that this presents. Results will be presented and the uncertainty in beam pointing will be discussed.