Microwave remote sensing information includes active and passive microwave remot e sensing information. Under some conditions

they usually show different chara cteristics of the same object. So acquiring active and passive microwave remote sensing information simultaneously is very important to interpretation

decision and inversion of microwave remote sensing. Scatterometer and radiometer are important sensors for microwave remote sensin g information acquisition. A scattero radiometer composed of a scatterometer an d a radiometer can measure backscattering coefficient and brightness temperature of the same object simultaneously and it is superior in size

weight and operati on. In the paper

the design idea of a scattero radiometer is put forward. In the i dea

a public antenna and a public high frequency channel are used to receive sc attering and radiation signals at the same time. Then

the signals are separate d by filters in intermediate frequency and processed respectively. An X band sca ttero radiometer is developed according to the idea. A simple continuous wave s catterometer and a digital gain compensation microwave radiometer are adopted i n the scattering and radiation mode respectively. The fundamental diagram and th e timing program of the scattero radiometer are introduced. The performance of the receiver has been tested and the results are given. Scattering and radiati on characteristics of soil versus water content have been measured with the sca ttero radiometer. The results have been compared with the analogous results ac hieved aboard and the trends are the same. It shows that each mode of the scatte ro radiometer can work in sequence and they don’t disturb each other. It prove s that it is feasible to develop a scattero radiometer according to the idea.