Parametric Study of Calibration Blackbody Uncertainty Using Design of Experiment

• Activity Number: 608
• Type: Topic Contributed
• Date/Time: Thursday, August 4, 2011 : 8:30 AM to 10:20 AM
• Sponsor: Section on Statistics in Defense and National Security
• Author(s): Nipa Phojanamongkolkij*+ and Joe A. Walker and David G. Johnson and Richard P. Cageao and Joseph J. O'Connell and Alan D. Little and Martin G. Mlynczak and Rosemary R. Baize
• Companies: NASA Langley Research Center and Science Systems and Applications, Inc. and NASA Langley Research Center and NASA Langley Research Center and NASA Langley Research Center and NASA Langley Research Center and NASA Langley Research Center and NASA Langley Research Center
• Keywords: Design of Experiment ; Uncertainty ; Monte Carlo ; Error Propagation ; Parametric study

Abstract

NASA is developing the CLARREO mission to provide accurate measurements to substantially improve understanding of climate change. One of the CLARREO payload is an Infrared (IR) Suite, which consists of a FTS and an on-orbit blackbody calibration and verification system. One of the most critical parts of obtaining accurate IR measurements relies on knowing the spectral radiance output from the blackbody calibration source. The blackbody radiance must be known with a low uncertainty, and the magnitude of the uncertainty itself must be reliably quantified. This study focuses on determining which parameters in the blackbody radiance equation are critical to the blackbody accuracy. Fourteen parameters are identified and explored using Design of Experiment. The parameters' ranges are based on the known specifications available at time of this study. The experiment is done by Monte Carlo simulation to estimate uncertainty. Only 4 parameters were discovered to be critical to the uncertainty. The uncertainties obtained are also compared to those obtained using the Error Propagation Law. The two methods produce statistically different, but practically indifferent uncertainties.