Visible/infrared radiometric calibration station

Los Alamos National Laboratories has begun construction of a visible/infrared radiometric calibration station that will allow for absolute calibration of optical and IR remote sensing instruments with clear apertures less than 16 inches in diameter in a vacuum environment. The calibration station broadband sources will be calibrated at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and allow for traceable absolute radiometric calibration to within +/- 3% in the visible and near IR (0.4-2.5 micrometers ), and less than +/- 1% in the infrared, up to 12 micrometers . Capabilities for placing diffraction limited images of for sensor full-field flooding will exist. The facility will also include the calibration of polarization and spectra effects, spatial resolution, field of view performance, and wavefront characterization. The configuration of the vacuum calibration station consists of an off-axis 21 inch, f/3.2, parabolic collimator with a scanning fold flat in collimated space. The sources are placed, via mechanisms to be described, at the focal plane of the off-axis parabola. Vacuum system pressure will be in the 10-6 Torr range. The broadband white-light source is a custom design by LANL with guidance from Labsphere Inc. The continuous operating radiance of the integrating sphere will be from 0.0-0.006 W/cm2/Sr/micrometers (upper level quoted for approximately 500 nm wavelength). The blackbody source is also custom designed at LANL with guidance from NIST. The blackbody temperature will be controllable between 250-350 degree(s)K. Both of the above sources have 4.1 inch apertures with estimated radiometric instability at less than 1%. The designs of each of these units will be described. The monochromator and interferometer light sources are outside the vacuum, but all optical relay and beam shaping optics are enclosed within the vacuum calibration station. These sources are to be described, as well as the methodology for alignment and characterization.