Radiometer Physics GmbH (RPG) products

RPG`s profiling radiometers are mainly used to derive vertical profiles of atmospheric temperature and humidity (RPG-HATPRO). The infrared radiometer extension allows to cloud base height and ice cloud detection.The radiometer series covers high-resolution temperature profiling of the boundary layer and low-humidity applications. All models of the series provide accurate total amounts of atmospheric water vapor and cloud liquid cloud. RPG radiometers are stand-alone systems for automated weather-station use under nearly all environmental conditions.  A variety of retrieval algorithms (custom designed and global standard algorithms) can be selected.

These radiometers are used for the remote sensing of integrated water vapor (IWV) and Liquid Water Path (LWP). Both quantities give column-integrated (total) values rather than vertically resolved profiles.

The RPG-Tau-225 and RPG-Tau-350 radiometers are designed for the estimation of atmospheric opacity (optical thickness, tau) in the observation bands of radio astronomy applications. Both of these sub-mm frequencies can easily be combined in one single instrument. Other frequencies are available.

The RPG DP-RR instrument is a stand-alone system for automated weather-station use under nearly all environmental conditions. This instrument observes at 3 or 4 frequencies with 2 orthogonal polarisations (6 or 8 channels in total). With orthogonal polarisation information and brightness temperatures at 6, 10, 19, and 36 GHz this instrument is dedicated to the observation of raining clouds. Polarization effects on non-spherical hydrometeors can be observed with this kind of instrument. This instrument observes at 3 or 4 frequencies with 2 orthogonal polarisations (6 or 8 channels in total).

The RPG-DP-SR instrument is a modular dual polarisation (DP) radiometer system for surface observations. It can be used in a wide field of applications, where polarisation effects are significant:

In 2016 Radiometer Physics GmbH has delivered the first RPG-FMCW-94 radar. This radar was developed for atmospheric research. It operates at 3.2 millimeter wavelength which allows for reaching high sensitivity with small sizes of the instrument. The radar provides range profiles of parameters that contain information about scatterers in the atmosphere such as cloud particles, raindrops, snowflakes and insects. The radar utilizes frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) signals and therefore has high range resolution down to 1 m. Doppler and polarimetric (optional) capabilities of the radar make a good basis for a classification of particles and a quantitative characterization of hydrometeors.

The microwave scintillometer RPG-MWSC-160 provides latent and sensible heat flux observations within the atmospheric surface layer, when it is conbined with an optical Large Aperture Scintillometer (LAS). In 2014 Radiometer Physics GmbH (RPG) released the first commercially available microwave scintillometer RPG-MWSC-160. It was designed for combined operation with an optical Large Aperture Scintillometer (LAS) to observe sensible and latent heat fluxes at the same time.