Comparison of the radiation temperature scales of the PTB and the NPL in the temperature range from −57 °C to 50 °C

Abstract

Blackbody sources at near-ambient temperature are routinely used to calibrate infrared instruments used in remote sensing and thermal imaging applications to measure radiance and radiation temperature. The measured temperature of the blackbody and its calculated effective emissivity determine its radiance and radiation temperature according to Planck's law. The temperature measurement is generally accomplished with a contact thermometer which is calibrated against the International Temperature Scale (ITS-90). The ammonia heat-pipe blackbody of the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) in Germany is a primary source standard working over a wide spectral range with low uncertainties, i.e. less than 33 mK at 10 µm in the temperature range from –60 °C to 50 °C. A more direct method of absolute radiance measurement is to use an absolutely calibrated radiometer, calibrated against a primary detector standard, the cryogenic radiometer. AMBER (Absolute Measurements of Blackbody Emitted Radiance) is an absolutely calibrated radiometer of the Optical Measurement Group of the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) in the UK which was specially designed to determine the radiance and hence the radiation temperature of near-ambient-temperature blackbodies. When AMBER is operated at short wavelengths, where photodetectors offering good long-term stability exist, it derives its traceability through the cryogenic radiometer. However, available photodetectors operating in the 8 µm to 12 µm wavelength range offer poor long-term stability so when AMBER is used in this wavelength range, the NPL radiance temperature scale is based on a gallium fixed-point blackbody operating at 29.7646 °C (ITS-90). At other radiance temperatures, the NPL scale also relies on the gallium fixed-point blackbody but requires the calibration of the relative spectral irradiance responsivity of the AMBER radiometer (done against NPL spectral responsivity standards), measurement of the radiometric zero, as well as the use of Planck's equation. This paper gives the results of a comparison of the radiation temperature scale of the PTB with the radiation temperature scale of NPL in a temperature range from −57 °C to 50 °C for wavelengths around 10 µm.