ELBARA II, an L-Band Radiometer System for Soil Moisture Research.docVIP

Sensors 2010, 10, 584-612; doi:10.3390/s100100584 OPEN ACCESS sensors ISSN 1424-8220 /journal/sensors Article ELBARA II, an L-Band Radiometer System for Soil Moisture Research Mike Schwank 1,2,*, Andreas Wiesmann 1, Charles Werner 1, Christian M?tzler 3, Daniel Weber 3, Axel Murk 3, Ingo V?lksch 2 and Urs Wegmüller 1 1 Gamma Remote Sensing AG, Worbstrasse 225, 3073 Gümligen, Switzerland; E-Mails: wiesmann@gamma-rs.ch (A.W.); cw@gamma-rs.ch (C.W.); wegmuller@gamma-rs.ch (U.W.) 2 Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Zürcherstrasse 111, 8903 Birmensdorf, Switzerland; E-Mail: ingo.voelksch@wsl.ch (I.V.) 3 Institute of Applied Physics, University Bern, Sidlerstr. 31, 3012 Bern, Switzerland; E-Mails: christian.matzler@iap.unibe.ch (C.M.); daniel.weber@iap.unibe.ch (D.W.); axel.murk@mw.iap.unibe.ch (A.M.) * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail: mike@schwank.ch. Received: 18 November 2009; in revised form: 9 December 2009 / Accepted: 15 December 2009 / Published: 13 January 2009 Abstract: L-band (1–2 GHz) microwave radiometry is a remote sensing technique that can be used to monitor soil moisture, and is deployed in the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) Mission of the European Space Agency (ESA). Performing ground-based radiometer campaigns before launch, during the commissioning phase and during the operative SMOS mission is important for validating the satellite data and for the further improvement of the radiative transfer models used in the soil-moisture retrieval algorithms. To address these needs, three identical L-band radiometer systems were ordered by ESA. They rely on the proven architecture of the ETH L-Band radiometer for soil moisture research (ELBARA) with major improvements in the microwave electronics, the internal calibration sources, the data acquisition, the user interface, and the mechanics. The purpose of this paper is to describe the design of the instruments