On-orbit absolute radiance standard for the next generation of IR remote sensing instruments

Abstract

The next generation of infrared remote sensing satellite instrumentation, including climate benchmark missions will require better absolute measurement accuracy than now available, and will most certainly rely on the emerging capability to fly SI traceable standards that provide irrefutable absolute measurement accuracy. As an example, instrumentation designed to measure spectrally resolved infrared radiances with an absolute brightness temperature error of better than 0.1 K will require high-emissivity (<0.999) calibration blackbodies with emissivity uncertainty of better than 0.06%, and absolute temperature uncertainties of better than 0.045K (k=3). Key elements of an On-Orbit Absolute Radiance Standard (OARS) meeting these stringent requirements have been demonstrated in the laboratory at the University of Wisconsin (UW) and refined under the NASA Instrument Incubator Program (IIP). This work recently culminated with an integrated subsystem that was used in the laboratory to demonstrate end-to-end radiometric accuracy verification for the UW Absolute Radiance Interferometer. Along with an overview of the design, we present details of a key underlying technology of the OARS that provides on-orbit absolute temperature calibration using the transient melt signatures of small quantities (<1g) of reference materials (gallium, water, and mercury) imbedded in the blackbody cavity. In addition we present performance data from the laboratory testing of the OARS.