This activity aims to demonstrate the dummy element technique in aperture synthesis radiometry to achieve low noise floor, low side lobes and better image reconstruction accuracy.

SMOS has shown the importance of achieving low level of noise floor and side lobes for best image quality in aperture synthesis radiometry. One key factor is the similarity between element patterns. During the TRP study on Super-MIRAS a solution was proposed based on dummy elements. This activity includes the following tasks : - To build of a representative part of an aperture synthesis radiometer at L-band with a conventional ground plane and with the proposed dummy element technique. - To measure of the patterns of the active elements. - To perform a full image reconstruction simulation and calculation of the noise floor for an ocean scene and a point source for both configurations. - To demonstrate of the expected better performance of the dummy element technique over the conventional configuration The results of this activity are general, i.e. valid to any type of microwave interferometer.