Abstract

In December 2014, NIST’s laser-based Traveling SIRCUS calibration system was installed at Raytheon SAS in El Segundo, CA for testing of the NOAA/NASA Joint Polar Satellite System-1 (JPSS-1) VIIRS sensor’s visible and near-infrared bands. The tunable laser sources were installed in the ante-room outside the Raytheon clean room where the VIIRS sensor was located. The output from the tunable lasers was fiber-coupled into a 1-m diameter Spectralon integrating sphere source positioned in front of the VIIRS sensor’s Earth-view port and VIIRS Absolute Spectral Responsivity (ASR) measurements were made. In a second configuration, a polarizer was placed between the source and the VIIRS entrance port and polarization sensitivity testing was done.

In this work, we present details of the T-SIRCUS calibration system, including a new automated tunable Optical Parametric Oscillator (OPO) system, achievable radiances with the 1-m Spectralon integrating sphere, and an uncertainty budget for the integrating sphere radiance. An approach to extend the dynamic range of out-of-band measurements using a recently develop Flat Plate Illuminator will be introduced. Finally, VIIRS sensor ASR and polarization responsivity results and implications based on the measurements are discussed.

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Aug 25th, 4:20 PM

Results of J1 VIIRS Testing Using NIST’s Traveling SIRCUS

In December 2014, NIST’s laser-based Traveling SIRCUS calibration system was installed at Raytheon SAS in El Segundo, CA for testing of the NOAA/NASA Joint Polar Satellite System-1 (JPSS-1) VIIRS sensor’s visible and near-infrared bands. The tunable laser sources were installed in the ante-room outside the Raytheon clean room where the VIIRS sensor was located. The output from the tunable lasers was fiber-coupled into a 1-m diameter Spectralon integrating sphere source positioned in front of the VIIRS sensor’s Earth-view port and VIIRS Absolute Spectral Responsivity (ASR) measurements were made. In a second configuration, a polarizer was placed between the source and the VIIRS entrance port and polarization sensitivity testing was done.

In this work, we present details of the T-SIRCUS calibration system, including a new automated tunable Optical Parametric Oscillator (OPO) system, achievable radiances with the 1-m Spectralon integrating sphere, and an uncertainty budget for the integrating sphere radiance. An approach to extend the dynamic range of out-of-band measurements using a recently develop Flat Plate Illuminator will be introduced. Finally, VIIRS sensor ASR and polarization responsivity results and implications based on the measurements are discussed.