Calibration and Deployment of a New NIST Transfer Radiometer for Broadband and Spectral Calibration of Space Chambers (MDXR)

Published

September 30, 2011

Author(s)

Timothy M. Jung, Adriaan C. Carter, Solomon I. Woods, Simon G. Kaplan

Abstract

The Low-Background Infrared (LBIR) facility at NIST has performed on-site calibration and initial off-site deployments of a new infrared transfer radiometer with an integrated cryogenic Fourier transform spectrometer (Cryo-FTS). This mobile radiometer can be deployed to customer sites for broadband and spectral calibrations of space chambers and low-background hardware-in-the-loop testbeds. The Missile Defense Transfer Radiometer (MDXR) has many of the capabilities of a complete IR calibration facility and replaces our existing filter-based transfer radiometer (BXR) as the NIST standard detector deployed to customer facilities. The MDXR features numerous improvements over the BXR, including: a cryogenic Fourier transform spectrometer, an on-board absolute cryogenic radiometer (ACR) and an internal blackbody reference source with an integrated collimator. The Cryo-FTS can be used to measure high resolution spectra from 3 to 28 micrometers, using a Si:As blocked-impurity-band (BIB) detector. The on-board ACR can be used for self-calibration of the MDXR BIB as well as for absolute measurements of external infrared sources. A set of filter wheels and a rotating polarizer within the MDXR allow for filter-based and polarization-sensitive measurements. The optical design of the MDXR makes both radiance and irradiance measurements possible and enables calibration of both divergent and collimated sources. Results of on-site calibration of the MDXR using its internal blackbody source and an external reference source will be discussed, as well as the performance of the new radiometer in its initial deployments to customer sites.

Proceedings Title

Proceedings of SPIE

Conference Dates

April 25-29, 2011

Conference Location

Orlando, FL, US

Conference Title

SPIE Defense, Security, and Sensing 2011

Pub Type

Conferences

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Keywords

infrared, radiometry, calibration, cryogenic, transfer radiometer, Fourier-transform spectrometer

Citation

Jung, T. , Carter, A. , Woods, S. and Kaplan, S. (2011), Calibration and Deployment of a New NIST Transfer Radiometer for Broadband and Spectral Calibration of Space Chambers (MDXR), Proceedings of SPIE, Orlando, FL, US, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=908521 (Accessed October 24, 2025)