The Advanced Microwave Precipitation Radiometer, or AMPR, was developed and built in the late 1980's by NASA scientist Dr. Roy Spencer and engineers Dr. Joe Galliano and Robert Platt of the Georgia Tech Research Institute.  The higher three frequencies (19.35, 37.1, and 85.5 GHz) are precisely those used by the DMSP SSM/I’s (Hollinger et al, 1987).  "The 10.7 GHz channel was added to validate the theoretical potential for sensitivity to rain rates greater than those at which the 19.35 GHz channel saturates (10-15 mm/hr)" (Spencer et al., 1994).  This inclusion of the 10.7 GHz channel helped to prompt the inclusion of the same on the TRMM Microwave Imager (Simpson et al., 1988) launched in 1998.  The AMPR has provided high quality calibrated brightness temperatures to the science community since 1990.  Numerous peer-reviewed journal articles have used or cited AMPR data, and many dozens more conference presentations and posters can be added to that.