An Analysis of 12 GHz low angle radiometric data

Several types of radiometers are reviewed for their relative abilities to measure sky noise temperature. Attenuation caused by atmospheric particles (rain, ice, oxygen, etc.) can be predicted from the sky noise temperature. Three years of data (1979-1981) were available for data reduction and analysis. From this data a model is developed to predict attenuation from sky noise temperature. Correlation of the predicted attenuation to actual signal attenuation is performed to assess the validity of the radiometric model.