PBMR
Push Broom Microwave Radiometer

The Push Broom Microwave Radiometer (PBMR) is an airborne passive microwave radiometer developed by NASA’s Langley Research Center (LaRC). It measures brightness temperature at the L-band frequency (1.41 GHz) to determine surface soil moisture. It has a spatial resolution equal to 0.3 times the flight altitude and a swath width of 1.2 times the altitude. For example, at a flight altitude of 300 meters, the spatial resolution would be 90 meters and the swath width would be 360 meters. PBMR features a 25 MHz bandwidth, a 0.5-second integration time, and an accuracy of approximately 2 K.