Abstract
The dynamic range and error performance of the diode power detector
used to denormalise the digital correlations in interferometric radiometers
is analysed by means of a second-order model of the diode
response. This gives an easy method to establish system dynamic
range as a trade-off between both the error contribution of measurement
uncertainty and diode nonlinearity. The method is illustrated by
analysing the power measurement system of the MIRAS-SMOS
instrument.