Calculation of Resident Space Object Color Temperature and Emissivity- Area from MSX SPIRIT III Infrared Data: Emissive Reference Sphere Results

摘要

This report discusses the calculation of color temperature and emissivity-area product from resident space object (RSO) observations that were obtained during a series of surveillance experiments carried out with the Midcourse Space Experiment (MSX) spacecraft. During these experiments, simultaneous infrared and visible-band data were collected with the SPIRIT III LWIR infrared radiometer and the Space-Based Visible (SBV) instruments, respectively. Algorithms were developed for the SPIRIT III Data Reduction pipeline which allow calculation of color temperature and emissivity-area product for RSOs given that the RSO was observed in at least two wavelength bands. This report discusses the algorithms and characterizes their accuracy using data taken on five emissive reference spheres that were deployed from the satellite over the lifetime of the SPIRIT III instrument.