Automatic control and data analysis of a multichannel millimeter wave radiometer

摘要

This thesis describes a multi-channel millimeter wave radiometer control system that will be used for atmospheric water vapor and temperature profile retrievals. The system consists of four subsystems which provide a total of nine frequency channels, a steerable reflector to permit slant-path measurements at different zenith angles, and a host computer for analyzing the data. The nine channels span the water vapor and oxygen absorption lines in the 20 to 60 GHz range. A distributed processing architecture is implemented to control the system. Each of the subsystems employs a signal processor and a microcontroller, which are configurable from the host. The signal processor filters the receiver's output, while the microcontroller oversees the radiometer, accepts data from the signal processor and communicates with the host. The host executes a custom shell that allows it to concurrently accept data from the subsystems, position the reflector and execute user analysis programs.