Fully polarimetric measurements of brightness temperature distributions with a quasioptical radiometer system at 90 GHz

Thermal radiation of complex man-made objects as well as of our natural environment contains fully polarimetric information in many cases. A quasioptical, imaging radiometer system was designed and built up at DLR for the measurement of the four Stokes vector components. A polarimetric calibration procedure was developed and verified. Selected measurements have been carried out which indicate new possible applications.