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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 307 records · Page 17
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2014

Early On-Orbit Performance of the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite Onboard the Suomi National Polar-Orbiting Partnership (S-NPP) Satellite

The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) is one of the key environmental remote-sensing instruments onboard the Suomi National Polar-Orbiting Partnership spacecraft, which was successfully launched on October 28, 2011 from the Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. Following a series of spacecraft and sensor activation operations, the VIIRS nadir door was opened on November 21, 2011. The first VIIRS image acquired signifies a new generation of operational moderate resolution-imaging capabilities following the legacy of the advanced very high-resolution radiometer series on NOAA satellites and Terra and Aqua Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer for NASA's Earth Observing system. VIIRS provides significant enhancements to the operational environmental monitoring and numerical weather forecasting, with 22 imaging and radiometric bands covering wavelengths from 0.41 to 12.5 microns, providing the sensor data records for 23 environmental data records including aerosol, cloud properties, fire, albedo, snow and ice, vegetation, sea surface temperature, ocean color, and nigh-time visible-light-related applications. Preliminary results from the on-orbit verification in the postlaunch check-out and intensive calibration and validation have shown that VIIRS is performing well and producing high-quality images. This paper provides an overview of the onorbit performance of VIIRS, the calibration/validation (cal/val) activities and methodologies used. It presents an assessment of the sensor initial on-orbit calibration and performance based on the efforts from the VIIRS-SDR team. Known anomalies, issues, and future calibration efforts, including the long-term monitoring, and intercalibration are also discussed.

viirs↗
NASA NTRS2016

Suomi National Polar-Orbiting Partnership Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite Polarization Sensitivity Analysis

The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) is one of five instruments onboard the Suomi National Polar-Orbiting Partnership (SNPP) satellite that launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, on October 28, 2011. It is a whiskbroom radiometer that provides +/-56.28deg scans of the Earth view. It has 22 bands, among which 14 are reflective solar bands (RSBs). The RSBs cover a wavelength range from 410 to 2250 nm. The RSBs of a remote sensor are usually sensitive to the polarization of incident light. For VIIRS, it is specified that the polarization factor should be smaller than 3% for 410 and 862 nm bands and 2.5% for other RSBs for the scan angle within +/-45deg. Several polarization sensitivity tests were performed prelaunch for SNPP VIIRS. The first few tests either had large uncertainty or were less reliable, while the last one was believed to provide the more accurate information about the polarization property of the instrument. In this paper, the measured data in the last polarization sensitivity test are analyzed, and the polarization factors and phase angles are derived from the measurements for all the RSBs. The derived polarization factors and phase angles are band, detector, and scan angle dependent. For near-infrared bands, they also depend on the half-angle mirror side. Nevertheless, the derived polarization factors are all within the specification, although the strong detector dependence of the polarization parameters was not expected. Compared to the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer on both Aqua and Terra satellites, the polarization effect on VIIRS RSB is much smaller.

Polar-Orbiting↗
NASA NTRS2016

A Low-Cost Miniaturized Laser Heterodyne Radiometer (Mini-LHR) for Near-ir Measurements of CO2 and CH4 in the Atmospheric Column

The miniaturized laser heterodyne radiometer (mini-LHR) is a ground-based passive variation of a laser heterodyne radiometer that uses sunlight to measure absorption of CO2 andCH4 in the infrared. Sunlight is collected using collimation optics mounted to an AERONET sun tracker, modulated with a fiber switch and mixed with infrared laser light in a fast photoreciever.The amplitude of the resultant RF (radio frequency) beat signal correlates with the concentration of the gas in the atmospheric column.

heterodyne radiometer (mini-LHR)↗
NASA NTRS2017

Characteristic of a Digital Correlation Radiometer Back End with Finite Wordlength

The performance characteristic of a digital correlation radiometer signal processing back end (DBE) is analyzed using a simulator. The particular design studied here corresponds to the airborne Hurricane Imaging radiometer which was jointly developed by the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, University of Michigan, University of Central Florida and NOAA. Laboratory and flight test data is found to be in accord with the simulation results. Overall design seems to be optimum for the typical input signal dynamic range. It was found that the performance of the digital kurtosis could be improved by lowering the DBE input power level. An unusual scaling between digital correlation channels observed in the instrument data is confirmed to be a DBE characteristic.

digital correlation radiometer↗
NASA NTRS2019

A Laser Heterodyne Radiometer for Sampling Plumes of Icy Moons

We propose to develop an instrument capable of passively sampling plumes in icy moon environments for the components needed for life and habitability. The compact, low-mass and power, orbital instrument would be an occultation-viewing laser heterodyne radiometer (LHR) that collects sunlight passing through the plumes of icy moons to measure abundancies of key trace gases such as water vapor, methane, ethane, carbon dioxide, and their isotopes. Laser heterodyne radiometers are based on radio receiver technology and have been applied to measurements of trace gases in Earth and planetary atmospheres since the 1960s. Our team has recently adapted this technology into a 4U (20cm x 20cm x 10cm) CubeSat instrument to measure carbon dioxide, methane and water vapor in the Earth's atmosphere (launching on Virgin Orbit in 2019) and have the experience to develop this into a compact science payload to monitor gases emerging from icy moons of Saturn and Jupiter.

laser heterodyne radiometer (LHR)↗
NASA NTRS2022

Multi-Frequency Radiometer-Based Soil Moisture Retrieval and Algorithm Parameterization Using In Situ Sites

L-band brightness temperature (TB) has been shown to provide the best sensitivity to soil moisture (SM) although C- and X-band based products offer a longer time-series from satellite-based measurements. Currently, global coverage SM is routinely produced from spaceborne measurements using all three frequency bands, but despite continued validation efforts of the products, the relative characteristics and performance of these observations have not been fully established. Therefore, this study focused on the parametrization of SM retrieval algorithms at L-, C- and X-bands using TB observations from the L-band radiometer on NASA's SM Active Passive (SMAP) mission and the C- and X-band channels of JAXA's Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2) onboard the GCOM-W satellite. These can be applied in global SM retrieval algorithms using either one of the frequencies or a combination of them. The reference in situ SM data was obtained from 12 core validation sites across various land cover types around the world. The investigation highlighted the known challenges of retrieving SM from C- and X-band data compared to the higher sensitivity of the L-band data. Even with a site-specific retrieval algorithm parameterization, the mean correlation of the C- and X-band retrievals for the core validation site SM measurement were much lower than that for L-band, being 0.52 (0.54) and 0.45 (0.47) for vertical (horizontal) polarization, respectively, while for the L-band retrieval the corresponding values were 0.81 (0.77). The parameterization exercise showed that matching the C- and X-band TB measurements with an emission model was not difficult; the problem was relating the observations to SM under the influence of large roughness and vegetation effects. As a result, parameter optimization produced values for some sites that were not realistic or did not allow any practical sensitivity to SM at C- and X-band. Considering the L-band observations, the parameter optimization resulted in superior bias performance as compared to the operational SMAP product parameterization, but the sensitivity to SM changes (R and unbiased root mean square difference) did not improve markedly, or in some cases degraded at the expense of a smaller bias.

passive microwave↗
DOE OSTI2014

Results of Second Outdoor Comparison Between Absolute Cavity Pyrgeometer (ACP) and Infrared Integrating Sphere (IRIS) Radiometer at PMOD (Presentation)

The Absolute Cavity Pyrgeometer (ACP) and InfraRed Integrating Sphere radiometer (IRIS) are developed to establish a world reference for calibrating pyrgeometers with traceability to SI units. The two radiometers are un-windowed with negligible spectral dependence, and traceable to SI units through the temperature scale (ITS-90). The second outdoor comparison between the two designs was held from September 30 to October 11, 2013 at the Physikalisch-Metorologisches Observatorium Davos (PMOD). The difference between the irradiance measured by ACP and that of the IRIS was within 1 W/m2 (3 IRISs: PMOD + Australia + Germany). From the first and second comparisons, a difference of 4-6 W/m2 was observed between the irradiance measured by ACP&IRIS and that of the interim World Infrared Standard Group (WISG). This presentation includes results from the first and second comparison in an effort to establish the world reference for pyrgeometer calibrations, a key deliverable for the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), and the DOE-ASR.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2016

Calibrating ground‐based microwave radiometers: Uncertainty and drifts

Abstract The quality of microwave radiometer (MWR) calibrations, including both the absolute radiometric accuracy and the spectral consistency, determines the accuracy of geophysical retrievals. The Microwave Radiometer Calibration Experiment (MiRaCalE) was conducted to evaluate the performance of MWR calibration techniques, especially of the so‐called Tipping Curve Calibrations (TCC) and Liquid Nitrogen Calibrations (LN2cal), by repeatedly calibrating a fourth‐generation Humidity and Temperature Profiler (HATPRO‐G4) that measures downwelling radiance between 20 GHz and 60 GHz. MiRaCalE revealed two major points to improve MWR calibrations: (i) the necessary repetition frequency for MWR calibration techniques to correct drifts, which ensures stable long‐term measurements; and (ii) the spectral consistency of control measurements of a well known reference is useful to estimate calibration accuracy. Besides, we determined the accuracy of the HATPRO's liquid nitrogen‐cooled blackbody's temperature. TCCs and LN2cals were found to agree within 0.5 K when observing the liquid nitrogen‐cooled blackbody with a physical temperature of 77 K. This agreement of two different calibration techniques suggests that the brightness temperature of the LN2 cooled blackbody is accurate within at least 0.5 K, which is a significant reduction of the uncertainties that have been assumed to vary between 0.6 K and 1.5 K when calibrating the HATPRO‐G4. The error propagation of both techniques was found to behave almost linearly, leading to maximum uncertainties of 0.7 K when observing a scene that is associated with a brightness temperature of 15 K.

Küchler, N.↗
DOE OSTI2024

Traceability of Surface Longwave Irradiance Measurements to SI Using the IRIS Radiometers

The traceability of the World Infrared Standard Group of Pyrgeometers (WISG) was established through the comparison to several independently calibrated radiometers (Infrared Integrating Sphere Radiometer (IRIS), Absolute Cavity Pyrgeometer (ACP), Atmospheric Emittance Radiance Interferometer (AERI)). The traceability of the longwave irradiance measurements to SI was validated by a comparison of two independently characterized blackbody cavities.

ACR↗
DOE OSTI2025

Design of a correlation reflectometer radiometer diagnostic and measurements of the electron density–temperature cross-phase angle in the H-mode pedestal with small edge localized modes at ASDEX Upgrade

This work presents the hardware design and first results from a newly commissioned correlation reflectometer radiometer diagnostic that measures the cross-phase angle between electron density and temperature fluctuations in ASDEX Upgrade plasmas. This diagnostic employs cross correlations between signals measured by a tunable, continuous wave, perpendicular incidence, fluctuation reflectometer, and a 24-channel radiometer sharing the same line of sight. Novel measurements in the pedestal of a helium H-mode plasma with small edge localized modes show changes in the cross-phase angle between the electron density and temperature fluctuations from ∼90° to 120°, suggesting changes in the properties of the turbulence driving transport in the plasma edge.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2026

A novel method for thermal noise reduction, enabling measurements of broadband, low-amplitude electron temperature fluctuations using individual radiometer channels

A new analysis method has been developed for measurements of broadband, low-amplitude turbulent electron temperature fluctuations in fusion plasmas using individual radiometer channels of a correlation electron cyclotron emission diagnostic. This method takes advantage of differences in the correlation time of thermal noise compared to the correlation time of plasma fluctuations in fusion reactors. The validation of this single-channel method is demonstrated using comparisons with the standard dual-channel radiometer spectral decorrelation method for measurements of turbulent electron temperature fluctuations in the core and edge of low confinement (L), improved confinement (I), and high confinement (H)-mode plasmas at the ASDEX Upgrade tokamak.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2014

Informal Preliminary Report on Comparisons of Prototype SPN-1 Radiometer to PARSL Measurements

The prototype SPN-1 has been taking measurements for several months collocated with our PNNL Atmospheric Remote Sensing Laboratory (PARSL) solar tracker mounted instruments at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) located in Richland, Washington, USA. The PARSL radiometers used in the following comparisons consist of an Eppley Normal Incident Pyrheliometer (NIP) and a shaded Eppley model 8-48 “Black and White” pyrgeometer (B&W) to measure the direct and diffuse shortwave irradiance (SW), respectively. These instruments were calibrated in mid-September by comparison to an absolute cavity radiometer directly traceable to the world standard group in Davos, Switzerland. The NIP calibration was determined by direct comparison, while the B&W was calibrated using the shade/unshade technique. All PARSL data prior to mid-September have been reprocessed using the new calibration factors. The PARSL data are logged as 1-minute averages from 1-second samples. Data used in this report span the time period from June 22 through December 1, 2006. All data have been processed through the QCRad code (Long and Shi, 2006), which itself is a more elaborately developed methodology along the lines of that applied by the Baseline Surface Radiation Network (BSRN) Archive (Long and Dutton, 2004), for quality control. The SPN-1 data are the standard total and diffuse SW values obtained from the analog data port of the instrument. The comparisons use only times when both the PARSL and SPN-1 data passed all QC testing. The data were further processed and analyzed by application of the SW Flux Analysis methodology (Long and Ackerman, 2000; Long and Gaustad, 2004, Long et al., 2006) to detect periods of clear skies, calculate continuous estimates of clear-sky SW irradiance and the effect of clouds on the downwelling SW, and estimate fractional sky cover.

Long, Charles N.↗
DOE OSTI2014

Cloud Optical Properties from the Multifilter Shadowband Radiometer (MFRSRCLDOD). An ARM Value-Added Product

The microphysical properties of clouds play an important role in studies of global climate change. Observations from satellites and surface-based systems have been used to infer cloud optical depth and effective radius. Min and Harrison (1996) developed an inversion method to infer the optical depth of liquid water clouds from narrow band spectral Multifilter Rotating Shadowband Radiometer (MFRSR) measurements (Harrison et al. 1994). Their retrieval also uses the total liquid water path (LWP) measured by a microwave radiometer (MWR) to obtain the effective radius of the warm cloud droplets. Their results were compared with Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) retrieved values at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Southern Great Plains (SGP) site (Min and Harrison 1996). Min et al. (2003) also validated the retrieved cloud optical properties against in situ observations, showing that the retrieved cloud effective radius agreed well with the in situ forward scattering spectrometer probe observations. The retrieved cloud optical properties from Min et al. (2003) were used also as inputs to an atmospheric shortwave model, and the computed fluxes were compared with surface pyranometer observations.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2026

DrEVL Radiometer Calibration

This report details the calibration procedures that were used for the spectral and radiometric part of the DrEVL radiometers. Our goal was to develop a highly repeatable and low cost spectral radiometer that could be deployed at numerous sites to collect a catalog of lightning data. Maximizing the re-usability of that data requires a well-calibrated instrument.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2025

University of Miami G-band Vapor Radiometer Calibration (UMGVR_CAL) Field Campaign Report

Cold-air outbreak (CAO) clouds in the Arctic are commonly mixed-phase (MP); however, the partitioning of the amount of ice and water in CAO clouds and precipitation is not always well observed. Understanding how cloud phases partition as a function of cloud life cycle is important for predicting snowfall rates, convective life cycle, and intensity at weather timescales. The partitioning into liquid versus ice also has radiative impacts that are consequential for climate. These concerns motivated the incorporation of an airborne G-band vapor radiometer (GVR) into an National Science Foundation-supported aircraft campaign named the Cold Air outbreak Experiment in the Sub-Arctic Region (CAESAR). The GVR is an upward-pointing passive microwave radiometer using four frequencies centered around the 183.31 GHz water vapor absorption line, displaced by +- 1, 3, 7, and 14 GHz. For context, The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility operates a surface-based GVR at its North Slope of Alaska (NSA) site. The same GVR has been used previously for a field campaign in the southeast Pacific, where an offset was noticed between brightness temperatures (Tbs) measured under clear skies compared to those calculated from a radiative transfer model. To account for any calibration offsets to the Tbs, a request was made to DOE to allow the GVR to operate at ARM’s Southern Great Plains (SGP) observatory and enable comparisons between its measurements and those available at SGP. This request was granted, titled ‘UMGVR_CAL’, short for ‘UMGVR_Calibration’. From October 30 to November 10, 2023, the GVR was deployed to the ARM SGP site to take advantage of their regular, nearby radiosonde launches under clear-sky conditions. The latter were determined using the SGP total sky imagery data. The GVR brightness temperatures in these clear-sky conditions were compared to those calculated by a radiative transfer code (PAMTRA) based on the SGP radiosondes. During the campaign, four suitable clear-sky episodes could be used for the GVR calibration. While few in number, these proved to be enough to satisfy our goal.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
NASA NTRS1967

An Evaluation of Sea Surface Temperature as Measured by the Nimbus 1 High Resolution Infrared Radiometer

An analysis of Nimbus I HRIR data over various parts of the world indicated limited success in deriving sea surface temperatures to within 3 to 6 K of aircraft radiation measurements (8- 13 microns) and synoptic-climatological ship sea surface temperature data. The areas studied included the east, west and Gulf coasts of the United States, West Greenland, Nova Scotia, southern Japan, the eastern Mediterranean Sea, Caspian Sea, Persian Gulf, and the Indian Ocean. At night, thin clouds which may fill the radiometer's field of view make it difficult to interpret the absolute values of derived sea surface temperature. During the daytime, the HRIR data is unusable for oceanographic temperature analysis because the contamination by reflected solar radiation mixes with the emitted radiation. Future satellite instrumentation, consisting of a HFUR radiometer (10-11 microns) when used in conjunction with television. data, will delineate cloud free ocean areas and permit the daily derivation of sea surface temperatures from approximately 10 to 30 Percent of the world's oceanic regions.

Allison, Lewis J.↗