Bandwidth and spectral stray light effects in the NASA GSFC Radiometric Calibration Facility primary transfer radiometer

Abstract

As part of an effort to reduce uncertainties in the radiometric calibrations of integrating sphere sources and standard lamp irradiance sources, the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) Radiometric Calibration Facility's (RCF) primary radiometer was characterized at the NIST facility for Spectral Irradiance and Radiance Calibrations with Uniform Sources (SIRCUS). Based on those measurements, a nominal slit scattering function was developed for the radiometer. This allowed calculations of band averaged spectral radiances and irradiances for the radiometer's measurements of sphere and standard lamp sources, respectively. From these calculations the effects of bandwidth and spectral stray light were isolated for measurements in the blue spectral region. These effects, which depend on the spectral distribution of the source being measured, can be as large as 8% for measurements at 400 nm. The characterization results and a correction algorithm for these effects are presented here.