On-orbit characterization of blackbody emissivity and spectrometer instrument line-shape using quantum cascade laser basedreflectometry

摘要

We present a method to characterize the emissivity of a spaceborne blackbody and the instrument line-shape (ILS) of a spectrometer using a quantum cascade laser (QCL) based reflectometer. QCLs allow the realization of on-orbit reflectometry that directly observes blackbody surface properties. We present experimental data verifying that the QCL reflected radiance signal can be measured by an Earth-observing spectrometer. The QCL can also be used to realize a monochromatic, spatially uniform source of infrared radiation to measure the spectrometer's ILS, which can be inverted to obtain diagnostic information about the integrity of the detector and nonlinearities in the detector signal-chain.