The EarthCARE satellite mission objective is the observation of clouds and aerosols from low Earth orbit. The key spatial context providing instrument within the payload suite of four instruments is the Multi-Spectral Imager (MSI). The MSI is intended to provide information on the horizontal variability of the atmospheric conditions and to identify e.g. cloud type, textures, and temperature. It will form Earth images at 500m ground sample distance (GSD) over a swath width of 150km; it will image Earth in seven spectral bands: one visible, one near-IR (NIR), two short-wave IR (SWIR) and three thermal IR (TIR). The instrument therefore comprises four key parts.
The EarthCARE mission is dedicated to the study of clouds by observations from a satellite in low Earth orbit. The payload will include major radar and LIDAR instruments, supported by a multi-spectral imager (MSI) and a broadband radiometer. The paper describes development of detailed design concepts for the MSI, and analysis of critical performance parameters. The MSI will form Earth images at 500m ground sample distance (GSD) over a swath width of 150km, from a nominal platform altitude of around 400km. The task of the MSI is to provide spatial context for the single-point measurements made by the radar and LIDAR systems; it will image Earth in 7 spectral bands: one visible, one near-IR, two short-wave IR and three thermal IR.
The MSI instrument will be formed in two parts: a visible-NIR-SWIR (VNS) system, radiometrically calibrated using a sunilluminated diffuser, and a thermal IR (TIR) system calibrated using cold space and an internal black-body. The VNS system will perform push-broom imaging, using linear array detectors (silicon and InGaAs) and 4 separate lenses. The TIR system will use a microbolometer array detector in a time delay and integration (TDI) mode. Critical issues discussed for the VNS system include detector selection and detailed optical design trade-offs. The latter are related to the desirability of dichroics to achieve a common aperture, which influences the calibration hardware and lens design. The TIR system’s most significant problems relate to control of random noise and bias errors, requiring optimisation of detector operation and calibration procedures.
The EarthCARE satellite mission objective is the observation of clouds and aerosols from low Earth orbit. The key spatial context providing instrument within the payload suite of 4 instruments is the Multi-Spectral Imager (MSI), previously described in [1]. The MSI is intended to provide information on the horizontal variability of the atmospheric conditions and to identify e.g. cloud type, textures, and temperature. It will form Earth images at 500m ground sample distance (GSD) over a swath width of 150km; it will image Earth in 7 spectral bands: one visible, one near-IR, two short-wave IR and three thermal IR. The instrument will be comprised of two key parts:
• a visible-NIR-SWIR (VNS) optical unit radiometrically calibrated using a sun illuminated quasivolume diffuser and shutter system
• a thermal IR (TIR) optical unit radiometrically calibrated using cold space and an internal black-body. This paper, being the first of a sequence of two, will provide an overview of the MSI and enter into more detail the critical performance parameters and detailed design the MSI TIR optical design.
The TIR concept is to provide pushbroom imaging of its 3 bands through spectral separation from a common aperture. The result is an efficient, well controlled optical design without the need for multiple focal plane arrays. The designed focal plane houses an area array detector and will meet a challenging set of requirements, including radiometric resolution, accuracy, distortion and MTF.
The ESA EarthCARE satellite mission objective is the observation of clouds and aerosols from low Earth orbit. The key spatial context providing instrument within the payload suite of 4 instruments is the Multi- Spectral Imager (MSI). This paper discusses the test program developed and implemented at SSTL for the formal qualification of the COTS micro-bolometer detectors for the TIR camera of the MSI. The comprehensive test campaign for the qualification of the detectors covered full electro-optical characterisation, life tests, environmental testing (thermal and mechanical), Particle Impact Noise Detection (PIND) tests, destructive physical analysis (DPA) and radiation tolerance assessment. Testing was undertaken at the specialist detector test facilities at SSTL. External facilities were called on for aspects of the programme. We describe the microbolometer arrays tested, the test benches developed for the program, test facilities, the test procedures and a summary of the test results. The qualification programme was completed in May 2014.
The European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) are co-operating to develop the EarthCARE satellite mission with the fundamental objective of improving the understanding of the processes involving clouds, aerosols and radiation in the Earth’s atmosphere.
The EarthCARE Multispectral Imager (MSI) is relatively compact for a space borne imager. As a consequence, the immediate point-spread function (PSF) of the instrument will be mainly determined by the diffraction caused by the relatively small optical aperture. In order to still achieve a high contrast image, de-convolution processing is applied to remove the impact of diffraction on the PSF. A Lucy-Richardson algorithm has been chosen for this purpose.
This paper will describe the system setup and the necessary data pre-processing and post-processing steps applied in order to compare the end-to-end image quality with the L1b performance required by the science community.
The Multi-Spectral Imager (MSI) will be flown on board the EarthCARE spacecraft, under development by the
European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). The fundamental objective of the
EarthCARE mission is improving the understanding of the processes involving clouds, aerosols and radiation in the
Earth’s atmosphere. In addition to the MSI instrument, a Cloud Profiling Radar (CPR), an Atmospheric Lidar (ATLID),
and a Broadband Radiometer (BBR) complete the payload of the EarthCARE satellite. By acquiring images of the
clouds and aerosol distribution, the MSI instrument will provide important contextual information in support of the radar
and lidar geophysical retrievals.
The MSI development philosophy is based on the early development of an Engineering Confidence Model (ECM) and
the subsequent development of a Proto-flight Model, the model to be launched on-board the EarthCARE satellite. This
paper provides an overview of the MSI instrument and its development approach. A description of the ECM and its
verification program is also provided.
The European Space Agency (ESA) is currently developing, in co-operation with the Japan Aerospace Exploration
Agency (JAXA) the EarthCARE satellite mission with the basic objective of improving the understanding of the cloudaerosols-
radiation interactions within the Earth's atmosphere. As part of the EarthCARE payload, the MSI instrument
will provide images of the earth in 7 spectral bands in the visible and infrared parts of the spectrum, with a spatial ground
resolution of 500 m and an image width on the ground of 150 km.
The radiometric accuracy of the MSI instrument is of paramount importance to accurately retrieve the physical
properties of clouds and aerosols from the radiometric measurements in the different MSI spectral channels. The prelaunch
calibration campaign together with the in-flight calibration facilities that the MSI instrument incorporates will
ensure the fulfilment of the radiometric requirements of the mission. The overall calibration approach for the MSI
instrument is described in this paper, including the pre-launch and in-flight calibration activities.
The EarthCARE satellite mission objective is the observation of clouds and aerosols from low Earth orbit. The key
spatial context providing instrument within the payload suite of 4 instruments is the Multi-Spectral Imager (MSI).The
MSI will take data at 500m ground sample distance (GSD) over a swath width of 150 km via pushbroom imaging. One
part of the MSI instrument will be a thermal IR optical unit (TIROU). We describe the design of the focal plane array for
the TIROU, its time-delay and integration readout scheme and present results derived from its associated simulator.
Clouds and aerosols are important atmospheric elements that strongly influence the weather and climate on planet Earth.
The European Space Agency (ESA) is currently developing, in co-operation with the Japan Aerospace Exploration
Agency (JAXA) the EarthCARE satellite mission with the objective of improving the understanding of the cloudaerosols-
radiation interactions within the Earth's atmosphere. It is foreseen that the data provided by the EarthCARE
satellite will allow the improvement of the currently available numerical prediction models, and therefore the quality of
the weather forecast and climate evolution predictions.
The payload of the EarthCARE satellite consists of a Cloud Profiling Radar (CPR), a Backscatter Lidar (ATLID), a
Broadband Radiometer (BBR), and a Multi-spectral Imager (MSI). The MSI instrument will provide images of the earth
in 7 spectral bands in the visible and infrared parts of the spectrum, with a spatial ground resolution of 500 m and an
image width on the ground of 150 km. This paper provides a description of the MSI instrument and its expected
performance.
We have measured the optical turbulence structure parameter, C2n, in two extremely different locations: the first being the littoral region on the southwest coast of Puerto Rico. The second location is over the dry desert in central New Mexico. In both cases, the horizontal beam paths are approximately 0.6 km long, within 2 meters of the local surface (Puerto Rico) and varying between 2 to 100 meters (New Mexico). We present our findings from the two datasets.
Measurements of Cn2 time series using unattended commericial
scintillometers over long time intervals inevitably lead to data drop-outs
or degraded signals. We present a method using Principal Component Analysis
(also known as Karhunen-Loève decomposition) that seeks to correct for
these event-induced and mechanically-induced signal degradations.
We report on the quality of the correction by examining
the Intrinsic Mode Functions generated by Empirical Mode Decomposition.
We present new optical turbulence structure parameter measurements, C2n, over sea water between La Parguera
and Magueyes Island (17.6N 67W) on the southwest coast of Puerto Rico. The 600 meter horizontal paths were
located approximately 1.5 m and 10 m above sea level. No data of this type has ever been made available in the
literature. Based on the data, we show that the C2n
measurements are about 7 times less compared to equivalent
land data. This strong evidence reinforces our previous argument1-4 that humidity must be accounted for to
better ascertain the near surface atmospheric turbulence effects, which current visible / near infrared C2n
bulk
models fail to do. We also explore the generalised fractal dimension of this littoral data and compare it to our
reference land data. We find cases that exhibit monofractal characteristics, that is to say, the effect of rising
temperatures during the daylight hours upon turbulence are counterbalanced by humidity, leading to a single
characteristic scale for the measurements. In other words, significant moisture changes in the measurement
volume cancels optical turbulence increases due to temperature rises.
KEYWORDS: Monte Carlo methods, Turbulence, Signal analyzers, Solar energy, Transmitters, Physics, Analytical research, Optical calibration, Calibration, Geometrical optics
The Hilbert Huang Transform is a new technique for the analysis of non-stationary signals. It comprises two distinct parts: Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) and the Hilbert Transform of each of the modes found from the first step to produce a Hilbert Spectrum. The EMD is an adaptive decomposition of the data, which results in the extraction of Intrinsic Mode Functions (IMFs). We discuss the application of the EMD to the calibration of two optical scintillometers that have been used to measure Cn2 over horizontal paths on a building rooftop, and discuss the advantage of using the Marginal Hilbert Spectrum over the traditional Fourier Power Spectrum.
We have recently shown the refractive index structure constant C2n in the visible and near infrared to be a strong function of humidity in the absence of solar insolation effects, in stark contrast to the commonly held assumption that the humidity contribution can be ignored in that waveband. We expand our analysis of the effects of humidity on C2n as measured across a 100-m long horizontal beam path to include temperature. Also we present a new technique for extracting information on changes in the parameter space of C2n and local weather variables, which we term Hilbert Phase Analysis (HPA). This methodology, based on extracting the phase of the analytic signal via Hilbert transforms, reveals a wealth of detail that conventional analysis techniques cannot determine. The HPA provides additional confirmation that C2n is strongly influenced by local humidity in the visible region. We have also found that HPA provides a clear demonstration that humidity competes with temperature in affecting the value of C2n.
Humidity and C2n data collected from the Chesapeake Bay area during the 2003/2004 period have been analyzed. We demonstrate that there is an unequivocal correlation between the data during the same time periods, in the absence of solar insolation. This correlation manifests itself as an inverse relationship. We suggest that C2n in the infrared region is also function of humidity, in addition to temperature and pressure.
We explore the effect of a newly discovered mechanism on the detection of infrared radiation using Apertureless Near Field Scanning Optical Microscopy (ANSOM). The passage of the ANSOM tip over a sample surface is modelled as a dipole moving over a halfspace. A boundary induced excitation is shown to occur, related to the retarded radiation reaction force of the dipole close to the surface. This excitation modifies the spontaneous emission characteristics of the dipole as it alters the near field. We suggest that this physical effect can cause emission at detectable levels in the infrared region thereby altering the expected signal in a typical ANSOM setup.
We present the current status and developments of a horizontal beam path laser propagation experiment over the sea performed off the coast of Puerto Rico. Atmospheric turbulence effects have been measured by a Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor with a Dalsa CCD camera and by a scintillometer from Optical Scientific, Inc* (OSI). We present preliminary scintillation measurements for an approximate period of two days from the two optical systems during the month of July 2005, also suggestions for improvement in the software, data acquisition protocol and hardware are presented.
We present the results of designing and fabricating distorted diffraction gratings which allow us to map multiple objects, placed along the optical axis of such grating based systems, onto a single image plane. We plan to use the gratings in the alignment of a long optical train, with the intention of simulating part of the beam transport system of a long baseline optical interferometer. The objective is to produce a simple system that will allow for the automatic alignment of the long optical trains within complex systems, such as the Magdalena Ridge Observatory Interferometer.
We describe the status and initial results of a long term campaign to measure the effects of atmospheric turbulence upon a horizontally directed laser beam, whose altitude above the sea surface is 2 metres. The measurements are made with a video rate Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor. Currently the source-receiver distance is 110 metres and additional sites have been identified to extend this single pass geometry to around 1 km. To date we have sampled over 70 hours of data, from December 2003 to April 2004. The preliminary scintillation power spectra and phase structure functions have been determined for some of the data sets, which we present here.
We report on the current status of a horizontal path length laser propagation campaign that is being performed over the sea, just off the coast of Puerto Rico. The effects of atmospheric turbulence in a tranquil marine environment have been measured with a video rate Shack--Hartmann wavefront sensor. The small perturbations in the wavefront phase and the degree of scintillation are presently being determined in a single pass from source to receiver, over a trial distance of 110 meters. Additional sites have been identified which allow for single pass measurements up to approximately 1 kilometer. Over 70 hours of data have been sampled to date, between December 2003 and April 2004.
The control of charged particles at sub micrometer and nanometer length scales presents an intrinsically interesting challenge, as well as being a rich field for the study of trapped ions and plasmas. Motivated by this, we obtain the exact solution for the
vector potential for a wire of finite length and of arbitrary form. Closed form solutions can then be deduced describing the electromagnetic waves propagating from the wire. This allows us to investigate design parameters, so that we may produce spiral wire shapes which, when injected with oscillatory currents, produce effects similar to conventional magnetic mirrors, except at the submicron and nanometre scale.
Nanoscale devices present an added complication: very closely placed surfaces can exchange heat through the tunneling of evanescent radiation modes. This can augment the local heating effect when compared to blackbody emission, so any fabrication defects on the surface of the wire spirals could be problematic. We show that the evanescent contributions scale as a function of separation and dominate the heat exchange process when the spacing is much less than the characteristic wavelength of a given temperature. We expect that excess material might be deposited erroneously during fabrication of the spiral wires, so the transfer of heat from one wire coil to the defect will be higher than the rate due to uniform blackbody radiation. In the case of tungsten, for our typical spiral geometry, the heating rate is enhanced by a factor of 15. In the case of a carbon or other high conductivity composite material this rate can be raised by as much as 106, which is evidently not appropriate.
Curvature sensing is a technique that provides the phase of wavefronts through measurements of irradiance in well defined planes along a beam of light. The equation describing the propagation of intensity and phase is well known; here the profile of a collimated monochromatic beam is determined at a certain longitudinal position by measuring the irradiance pattern at two planes either side of that position. Using a distorted grating lens, the intensity profiles of the two planes can be recorded simultaneously. Their difference may be related back to the wavefront phase either through solutions of the Intensity Transport Equation. The theory and first experimental results are reported.
The initial theory for a novel type of wavefront controller for microwaves is described. This controller is based on the principle that the effective refractive index of a structure is a square root product between the permittivity and permeability of a material, n = ??µ. With high conductivity metals, such as silver, light acquires an effective mass so that the longitudinal mode has a finite frequency known as the plasma frequency, ?p. B elow that frequency the dielectric function is negative, allowing no modes in the bulk of the metal. This is responsible for the amazing and unique properties of structured metals. One may, by extension of scale, design a metallic structure whose effective is negative, for wavelengths longer than the structure’s unit cell. Such structures have been suggested recently by Pendry et al. The symmetry of Maxwell’s equations implies that magnetic structures can be engineered from non-magnetic materials, so that an effective ? is produced down to negative values. An example of such a structure is investigated here in detail. I also discuss how the electric and magnetic structures are combined to produced a controllable refractive index over the unit cell, implying that we can construct wavefront controllers from conductive mesostructures.
ELECTRA is the University of Durham's high order AO system designed for the William Herschel Telescope. The correcting element is a segmented deformable mirror, where each segment is driven by a cylindrical piezoelectric actuator such that it can be moved in tip, tilt and piston. In order to cophase all the segments of the mirror it is necessary to calibrate and linearize the response of these actuators. To this end, we have installed strain gauge transducers along the electrodes of each actuator to provide information on their instantaneous extensions and calibrated their responses.
The angular resolution limit imposed by atmospheric seeing may be improved upon by the application of adaptive optics to short exposure images from a single telescope. However, it has not been possible to produce diffraction limited images in the invisible bandpass by this technique. We are developing a dilute aperture, single mode fiber interferometer with adaptive optics to reach the diffraction limit of a large telescope. The spatial filtering property of such fibers causes incident wavefront aberrations to be rejected, so that the visibility of the fringes is unaffected by atmospheric distortions. Using phase closure techniques, the multiple vector baselines of the dilute aperture will yield diffraction limited images.
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