Mid-wave Band Research Articles

Study on Method for Measuring Coating Emissivity by Applying Active Irradiation Based on Infrared Thermal Imager.

To achieve rapid and precise non-contact measurements of coating emissivity at room temperature, a measurement method based on infrared thermal imager was proposed. By applying two irradiations with different energies to the target and reference surfaces, the influences of atmospheric transmittance, radiation of the target itself, environmental radiation, and atmospheric path radiation were eliminated, thereby enabling accurate emissivity measurement. Experiments were designed for validation with a mid-wave infrared thermal imager and a surface blackbody as the radiation source. Several combinations of irradiation energy were set to investigate the effects of average energy and energy difference between the two irradiations on the measured results. The normal emissivity of the coated sample plate in the mid-wave band was measured to generate the image of coating surface emissivity. Then, the emissivity measurement results of the proposed method were compared with those of the energy method and the point emissivity measuring instrument under the same conditions, and the comparison indicated that the proposed method can effectively measure the emissivity of coating. Some factors causing measurement errors were analyzed. Finally, an experiment was designed to compare the measurement speed between the proposed method and the currently used methods, and the experimental results were analyzed.

Spectrum calibration of the first hyperspectral infrared measurements from a geostationary platform: Method and preliminary assessment

AbstractThe level‐1 (L1) radiance spectra from the first Geostationary Interferometric InfraRed Sounder (GIIRS) have been publicly available since January 2019. On account of the inherent observation characteristics, operation modes, and capabilities, a complete spectrum calibration method of GIIRS/L1 products is originally proposed to form the latest version (V3) algorithm for implementation. Particularly, four targeted improvements in three aspects are independently established: subsample location alignment to yield integrated interferograms in both forward and backward directions with almost zero phase, rough spectral scale unification as well as accurate spectral scale correction to resolve spectral non‐uniformity due to a seriously asymmetric configuration of focal plane array, and an additional double‐reflected compensation to mitigate the influence of non‐ideal onboard blackbody reference upon radiometric accuracy. Preliminary assessments from both domestic and international sources indicate that the spectral and radiometric accuracies of the measured spectra from the latest GIIRS/L1 V3 algorithm show a well‐behaved performance in both longwave (LW) and midwave (MW) bands, that is, lower than 10 ppm of spectral scale errors, which is of sufficient accuracy for numerical weather prediction use, and around 1 K for most uncontaminated channels within the LW band. However, non‐linearity correction of interferograms and spectral quality improvements, especially for the MW band, should be developed further. In general, a feasible solution of spectrum calibration for a hyperspectral sounder on geostationary platform is provided in detail for reference, which is expected to benefit users of GIIRS data as well as designers responsible for L1 data processing of other similar sensors.

FY-3D HIRAS Radiometric Calibration and Accuracy Assessment

The High-Spectral Infrared Atmospheric Sounder (HIRAS) is a Fourier transform spectrometer onboard the fourth polar-orbiting FengYun 3D satellite (FY-3D). The FY-3D HIRAS provides interferogram measurements of Earth view radiance spectra in three infrared spectral bands at 29 cross-track positions, each with a $2 \times 2$ array of field of views (FOVs). The HIRAS level 1 radiance data cover the spectral bands from 650 to 1135 cm−1 [long-wave (LW) band], 1210 to 1750 cm−1 [mid-wave (MW) band], and 2155 to 2550 cm−1 [short-wave (SW) band] with a spectral resolution of 0.625 cm−1. The radiometric calibration algorithm and the methods of refining the nonlinearity (NL) and the polarization correction coefficients on orbit are summarized in this article. The NL correction coefficients are derived by minimizing the spread of the responsivity functions derived from the measurements of the internal calibration target with varying temperatures. The polarization correction coefficients are derived from the cold space observations and the routine Earth scene measurements. The radiometric accuracy is assessed by comparing the HIRAS measurements to the collocated Cross-track Infrared Sounder (CrIS) observations and radiance simulations. The results show that, compared to CrIS, the radiometric differences are about 0.3 and 0.7 K for the LW and MW bands, respectively, and 0.5 K for the CO absorption and window regions in the SW band. The consistency of the radiometric calibration among the four FOVs is estimated to be within 0.2 K for most of the spectral domain. Some remaining issues for the FY-3D HIRAS are also discussed.

Nano‐plasmonic chirped metal‐stripes polarimeter for dual‐band infrared detection

A novel chirped metal structure (CMS) is developed for polarimetric enhanced detection of both mid-wave (MW) (3–5 µm) and long-wave (LW) infrared (IR) wavelength bands (8–14 µm). The nano-scale structure consists of parallel sub-wavelength chirped-width stripes together with graded-width separating gaps. The CMS allows plasmonically enhanced polarisation-sensitive absorption of dual-bands simultaneously in underneath IR detection device. The finite-difference-time-domain method is utilised to numerically evaluate gold CMS structure on an IR detector. Simulations show an excellent performance with high plasmonic absorption enhancement and polarisation extinction-ratio over the continuous wavelength range 3–14 µm. The maximum recorded extinction-ratios are 2900:1 and 400:1 in the LW and MW bands, respectively. The maximum estimated plasmonic absorption enhancements for TM-polarisation in the LW and MW bands are 96 and 16%, respectively. The suppression of TE-polarisation absorption is almost 100% over both bands.

Suomi NPP CrIS measurements, sensor data record algorithm, calibration and validation activities, and record data quality

AbstractThe Cross‐Track Infrared Sounder (CrIS) is a Fourier Transform Michelson interferometer instrument launched on board the Suomi National Polar‐Orbiting Partnership (Suomi NPP) satellite on 28 October 2011. CrIS provides measurements of Earth view interferograms in three infrared spectral bands at 30 cross‐track positions, each with a 3 × 3 array of field of views. The CrIS ground processing software transforms the measured interferograms into calibrated and geolocated spectra in the form of Sensor Data Records (SDRs) that cover spectral bands from 650 to 1095 cm−1, 1210 to 1750 cm−1, and 2155 to 2550 cm−1 with spectral resolutions of 0.625 cm−1, 1.25 cm−1, and 2.5 cm−1, respectively. During the time since launch a team of subject matter experts from government, academia, and industry has been engaged in postlaunch CrIS calibration and validation activities. The CrIS SDR product is defined by three validation stages: Beta, Provisional, and Validated. The product reached Beta and Provisional validation stages on 19 April 2012 and 31 January 2013, respectively. For Beta and Provisional SDR data, the estimated absolute spectral calibration uncertainty is less than 3 ppm in the long‐wave and midwave bands, and the estimated 3 sigma radiometric uncertainty for all Earth scenes is less than 0.3 K in the long‐wave band and less than 0.2 K in the midwave and short‐wave bands. The geolocation uncertainty for near nadir pixels is less than 0.4 km in the cross‐track and in‐track directions.

Suomi‐NPP CrIS radiometric calibration uncertainty

AbstractThe Cross‐track Infrared Sounder (CrIS) is the high spectral resolution spectroradiometer on the Suomi National Polar‐Orbiting Partnership (NPP) satellite, providing operational observations of top‐of‐atmosphere thermal infrared radiance spectra for weather and climate applications. This paper describes the CrIS radiometric calibration uncertainty based on prelaunch and on‐orbit efforts to estimate calibration parameter uncertainties, and provides example results of recent postlaunch validation efforts to assess the predicted uncertainty. Prelaunch radiometric uncertainty (RU) estimates computed for the laboratory test environment are less than ~0.2 K 3 sigma for blackbody scene temperatures above 250 K, with primary uncertainty contributions from the calibration blackbody temperature, calibration blackbody reflected radiance terms, and detector nonlinearity. Variability of the prelaunch RU among the longwave band detectors and midwave band detectors is due to different levels of detector nonlinearity. A methodology for on‐orbit adjustment of nonlinearity correction parameters to reduce the overall contribution to RU and to reduce field of view (FOV)‐to‐FOV variability is described. The resulting on‐orbit RU estimates for Earth view spectra are less than 0.2 K 3 sigma in the midwave and shortwave bands, and less than 0.3 K 3 sigma in the longwave band. Postlaunch validation efforts to assess the radiometric calibration of CrIS are underway; validation results to date indicate that the on‐orbit RU estimates are representative. CrIS radiance products are expected to reach “Validated” status in early 2014.

Infrared radiance of the wind-ruffled sea

The surface of the wind-ruffled sea contains capillary wave facets whose curvature is much larger than the wavelength of visible and infrared light. As a result, visible sea radiance consists of the sum of all the mirrorlike reflections of the sky and sun from each facet. In the infrared, additional radiance arises from blackbody emission by the facet and along the atmospheric path to the point of observation. Numerical calculations of mean sea radiance based on this model agree to within 1 °C with infrared data obtained in the long-wave band and in the short- and mid-wave bands outside the sun-glint corridor. If sun glint can be neglected, the spectral radiance of the ocean horizon is approximately given by the Planck function at the temperature of the ocean and lower atmosphere.