Development of a high stability L-band radiometer for ocean salinity measurements

An NEDT analysis of a Dicke radiometer with noise diode injection is presented. The analysis is formulated for a calibration that would form separate running averages of receiver noise temperature and of gain in order to minimize the NEDT and maximize the antenna observation duty cycle relative to the reference and noise diode duty cycles. Results are applied to the Aquarius ocean salinity radiometer problem to show that near ideal total-power radiometer performance is possible.