Abstract
The total lunar eclipse from October 28, 2004, was observed by AMSU-B
(Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit - B) on NOAA-15 during a couple of
minutes of each orbit around the Earth. From this unique vantage point
in space it could provide disk-integrated, effective lunar temperatures
at lower frequencies than employed in most previous observations of
eclipses, in intervals of 100 min. The relative changes in brightness
temperature were 6.4±2.1% at 89 GHz and 16.6±2.1% at 183 GHz. This
trend of stronger temperature drop at higher frequency was expected on
the basis of a new radiative transfer model simulating the global
brightness temperatures. Our measurements disprove two results published
in the past, but they confirm the claim made before that the changes are
similar at the center and for the whole disc. In terms of precision they
are comparable to those carried out in the past with radio telescopes on
ground.