Abstract
Integration sphere based uniform sources are a primary tool for ground based calibration, characterization and testing of pre-flight and flight radiometric equipment. Periodic calibration of these devices traceable to a National Lab is required. This usually entails sending the device back to the original manufacturer or a qualified calibration lab if the capability does not exist in house. Sending commissioned equipment out of house is usually not easy or possible for most system users. Even if the in-house calibration capability does exist, need for accredited third party verification is usually desired to validate program performance. Labsphere has been investigating a radiometrically-stable, NIST-traceable and accreditable service for calibration at customer sites in the 0.3um to 2.4um wavelength range for spectral radiance and irradiance. Our instrumentation can be brought on-site on-demand and at relatively low cost to provide traceable certification and measurement of existing sources and systems at customer sites around the world. In this poster, we will document our out-bound and in-bound calibration results and problems experienced over several campaigns. We will also discuss our initial traceability and characterization effort with basic commercial instrumentation, as well as in-house techniques (unique calibration station, stray light reduction characterization, wavelength registration problem and spectral anomalies) we have used to validate, inspect and improve on our results to provide under 2.5%, 2-sigma field-capable absolute uncertainty.
Uncertainty of In-Situ Calibration and Commissioning of Uniform Source Systems in the Field
Integration sphere based uniform sources are a primary tool for ground based calibration, characterization and testing of pre-flight and flight radiometric equipment. Periodic calibration of these devices traceable to a National Lab is required. This usually entails sending the device back to the original manufacturer or a qualified calibration lab if the capability does not exist in house. Sending commissioned equipment out of house is usually not easy or possible for most system users. Even if the in-house calibration capability does exist, need for accredited third party verification is usually desired to validate program performance. Labsphere has been investigating a radiometrically-stable, NIST-traceable and accreditable service for calibration at customer sites in the 0.3um to 2.4um wavelength range for spectral radiance and irradiance. Our instrumentation can be brought on-site on-demand and at relatively low cost to provide traceable certification and measurement of existing sources and systems at customer sites around the world. In this poster, we will document our out-bound and in-bound calibration results and problems experienced over several campaigns. We will also discuss our initial traceability and characterization effort with basic commercial instrumentation, as well as in-house techniques (unique calibration station, stray light reduction characterization, wavelength registration problem and spectral anomalies) we have used to validate, inspect and improve on our results to provide under 2.5%, 2-sigma field-capable absolute uncertainty.