Improving satellite antenna temperature estimation by high-resolution emission model of the Earth

This paper describes the results of a study aimed at accurately determining the antenna noise temperature used to calculate the uplink G/T for satellite-borne receivers. The antenna noise temperature is calculated from a brightness temperature database of the Earth which, for each surface pixel (1/spl deg//spl times/1/spl deg/), includes the effects of the season, observation angle and frequency. Good correlation has been found by comparison with in-orbit test (IOT) measurements.