Experience:
All BEST personnel have decades of experience with radiometer development, installation, operating, and maintenance. In past decades we have designed, built, and operated radiometers on various aircraft, including unmanned vehicles and dirigibles. We also participated in ground based and ship based experiments with our instrumentation and thus we are keenly aware of the potential problems and challenges that harsh environments can present to scientific instrument, and in particular, radiometers. We are also intimately familiar with data acquisition, processing, and retrieval challenges.
One of the most advanced radiometer system developed by our personnel is Polarimetric Scanning Radiometer (PSR). This instrument, in operation over 10 years, has flown more than 700 flight hours on various aircraft in several configurations. A closely related instrument is the Ground-based Scanning Radiometer (GSR), currently in operation at the DoE Atmospheric Radiation Measurement site in Barrow, Alaska. A number of smaller instruments have been also developed and successfully operated by BEST personnel. A 60 GHz scanning radiometer operated for the duration of the Arctic winter on a Swedish ice-breaker in 2001. Our instruments have operated in polar and tropical regions, and very often in extreme weather conditions.