NEWS:
Boulder Environmental Sciences and Technology is currently developing several new products:
- The Marine Profiling Radiometer (MPR) – funded from the NSF SBIR Phase I project. MPR is a very robust radiometer requiring a minimal maintenance and no calibration, build to operate in challenging marine environment, on a buoy, ship, or pier and remotely provide valuable information about environment, including temperature and humidity profiles.
- Airborne, very compact microwave radiometer build specifically for atmospheric and cloud observation. This project is currently in Phase II. Project was funded under DOE Phase I SBIR program and it is titled Profiling radiometer for Atmospheric and Cloud Observation (PRACO). DOE SBIR program awarded also Phase II project for the same radiometer. PRACO is a small instrument with diameter of ~ 10 cm and length of 40 cm. PRACO’s expected technical specifications can be found here.
- NASA SBIR Phase I funded a project titled Microwave Radiometer for Aviation Safety.
Microwave radiometer is a very sensitive receiver capable to measure very low levels of electromagnetic radiation in microwave region. Such radiation is emitted, as described by Planck's law by every body warmer than absolute zero. What is generally considered to be a noise by other devices is a signal for a microwave radiometer. When a scene, such as terrain is observed by a microwave radiometer, the radiation received by the antenna is a part of self emission by the scene and part of the reflection from the surroundings, such as atmosphere and cosmic background. Microwave radiometers historically were developed in 1930 and 1940 for radio astronomy. In 1958 a group of researchers from University of Texas pointed radiometer to terrestrial materials such as water, grass, and asphalt and passive microwave remote sensing was born.
First satellite with microwave radiometers pointed towards Earth was Cosmos 243 in 1968. Today microwave radiometers are in daily use for astronomical studies, military applications, and for environmental monitoring. These very useful, environmentally safe, electromagnetic energy non-emitting (passive) devices provide information about geophysical properties such as water vapor content in atmosphere, liquid vapor content, temperature and water vapor profiles, rain rate, sea surface wind vector, sea ice properties, salinity, sea surface temperature, soil moisture, precipitation rate, snow properties and snow water accumulation, to name a few. These important meteorological and hydrological variables are provided by passive microwave sensor, microwave radiometer. Microwave radiometers operate under all weather condition and penetrate most of the clouds if installed on a satellite in space, or on ground. Meteorology, oceanography, hydrology would be a very different science today if not for microwave radiometers and passive microwave remote sensing.
Our company, Boulder Environmental Sciences and Technology, has a very experienced staff involved in the area of microwave remote sensing, and particularly in microwave radiometer development, for decades. We have developed and operated instrumentation either on ground or on a flying machine, or on a ship. We build microwave radiometers in every radiometric band practical for use in terrestrial observation. If there is a radiometer that can be designed, developed, and made practical, we can build it.
On our web pages you can find a number of radiometers and their components we have developed and we are able to provide if need arise. Most of the components of our radiometer are also available for sale. We are not only able to design any radiometer, but also manufacture, test, and deliver horn antennas, including lens horn antennas, mixers, low noise amplifiers, oscillators, waveguide transitions, and other microwave components, as well as video amplifiers, microwave calibration targets, motion systems for microwave radiometers, temperature stabilization schemes, environmental enclosures for extreme weather, communication solutions for remote places, power supplies and other devices necessary for reliable and autonomous operation of a microwave radiometer.