Publications Details
Multi-Spectral Pushbroom Imaging Radiometer (MPIR) for remote sensing studies
A Multi-spectral Pushbroom Imaging Radiometer (MPIR) has been developed as a well-calibrated, imaging radiometer for studies of cloud properties from an unmanned aerospace vehicle platform. The instrument is designed to fly at altitudes up to 20 km and produce data from nine spectral detector modules. Each module has its own telescope optics, linear detector array, spectral filter, and necessary electronics. Cryogenic cooling for the long-wavelength infrared modules, as well as temperature regulation of the short- wavelength modules, is provided by a liquid nitrogen system designed to operate for multi-day missions. Pre- and post-flight calibration, combined with an on-board calibration chopper, provide an instrument with state-of-the-art radiometric measurement accuracies. Each module has a {+-}40{degree} across-track field-of-view and images a curved footprint onto its linear detector array. The long-wavelength array types have 256 detector elements while the short-wavelength arrays can have 512 elements. A modular design allows individual spectral bands to be changed to match the requirements for a particular mission.