Radiometric Sensor Calibration for the WB-57 DyNAMITE MWIR Used for First Stage Reentry During CRS-4 Mission

摘要

Thermal imaging cameras provide an excellent tool for remote sensing measurements of high temperature objects at large distances. When these cameras are mounted and flown in high altitude airborne platforms, the resulting data has to have numerous advantages over ground based platforms in addition to shorter ranges. With the proper selection of spectral bandpass, focal plane array pixel format and optical components, objects at large distances and elevated temperatures may be resolved potentially yielding valuable information about its surface temperatures. Essential to inferring accurate surface temperature profiles is a full radiometric calibration of the camera and optics. The radiometric calibration provides the conversion coefficients transforming the camera's raw digital number output to in-band radiance and finally to spectral radiance. We present the radiometric calibration data acquisition and analysis methodology along with the results from the calibration of the midwave infrared (MWIR) sensor used for thermographic analysis of the supersonic retro-propulsion (SRP) burn of the Falcon 9 first stage booster. Also included are the camera's sensitivity limits or noise equivalent spectral radiance.