StarDICE II: Calibration of an Uncooled Infrared Thermal Camera for Atmospheric Gray Extinction Characterization.
Sensors (Basel)
; 24(14)2024 Jul 11.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-39065895
ABSTRACT
The StarDICE experiment strives to establish an instrumental metrology chain with a targeted accuracy of 1 mmag in griz bandpasses to meet the calibration requirements of next-generation cosmological surveys. Atmospheric transmission is a significant source of systematic uncertainty. We propose a solution relying on an uncooled infrared thermal camera to evaluate gray extinction variations. However, achieving accurate measurements with thermal imaging systems necessitates prior calibration due to temperature-induced effects, compromising their spatial and temporal precision. Moreover, these systems cannot provide scene radiance in physical units by default. This study introduces a new calibration process utilizing a tailored forward modeling approach. The method incorporates sensor, housing, flat-field support, and ambient temperatures, along with raw digital response, as input data. Experimental measurements were conducted inside a climatic chamber, with a FLIR Tau2 camera imaging a thermoregulated blackbody source. The results demonstrate the calibration effectiveness, achieving precise radiance measurements with a temporal pixel dispersion of 0.09 W m-2 sr-1 and residual spatial noise of 0.03 W m-2 sr-1. We emphasize that the accuracy of scene radiance retrieval can be systematically affected by the camera's close thermal environment, especially when the ambient temperature exceeds that of the scene.
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Language:
En
Journal:
Sensors (Basel)
Year:
2024
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
France
Country of publication:
Switzerland