Two‐dimensional synthetic aperture millimeter‐wave radiometric interferometer for measuring full‐component Stokes vector of emission from hydrometeors

Abstract

Calculations of attainable values for space resolution and radiometric sensibility of a spaceborne two‐dimensional synthetic aperture microwave polarimetric interferometer are carried out. It is shown that for the most preferable Y‐shaped interferometer configuration, it is possible to achieve (within the transparency windows of waveband 3–22.5 mm) a space resolution of 0.5–1 km and a radiometric resolution close to 1 K at the receiver bandwidth of 100 MHz. For cross‐ and T‐shaped resolutions, values close to the above can be reached.