Pre-launch calibration for low cost Earth-observing EO/IR weather satellites

Abstract

Orion Space Solutions, an Arcfield Company, has developed a series of low-cost Electro-Optical/Infrared (EO/IR) sensors for global cloud characterization and weather imagery. Building on the Rapid Revisit Optical Cloud Imager (RROCI) technology demonstration mission, Orion has developed efficient radiometric calibration techniques spanning the visible through longwave infrared (0.4 to 14 μm). These methods were initially implemented for RROCI and validated on orbit through comparisons with the NOAA-20 Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) and the NOAA GOES-R Series Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI). Because RROCI employs microbolometer detectors, accurate longwave infrared detector characterization and long-term radiometric stability are essential. This paper presents Orion’s approaches for efficient detector data processing, radiometric calibration, detector characterization in order to enable accurate, stable performance for low-cost EO/IR imaging systems over extended mission lifetimes.