Simulation, acquisition and analysis of passive millimeter-wave images in remote sensing applications

We report on the development of a passive millimeter-wave (MMW) imager for remote sensing, and the comparison of the experimentally acquired images with the theoretical images from our MMW scene simulator. The imager has an aperture diameter of 0.6m, and the detector and the imaging optics are mechanically raster-scanned over the scene to form an image. The angular resolution was experimentally found to be 0.4 degrees, which is close to the theoretical diffraction limit of 0.37 degrees, and the imager NEDT was measured to be 0.9 K. Qualitatively, simulated MMW imagery showed good agreement with an experimental MMW image.