A new calibration method for tri-polarization microwave radiometers

A new calibration method for tri-polarization microwave radiometers is presented in this paper. The method can be used to calibrate the radiometers having the output of the first three Stokes parameters. By using two calibration targets with temperature adjusted function and a polarizing grid, the new means also may provide a full rank Stokes matrix to compute the elements in the gain matrix of polarization-correlating radiometers. The merit of this method is that need not nonpolarized target in radiometer calibration because the existence of temperature-adjusted function of two calibration loads. Hence, it will be helpful in some special spot such as thermal-vacuum chamber. An optimal criterion based on condition number is also provided to decrease the error limit of radiometer calibration. The simulation results show the method's validity.