A Second-Generation Blackbody System for the Calibration and Verification of Seagoing Infrared Radiometers

Quasi-operational shipborne radiometers provide a fiducial reference measurement (FRM) for satellite validation of satellite sea surface skin temperature (SSTskin) retrievals. External reference blackbodies are required to verify the performance and to quantify the accuracy of the radiometer calibration system. They provide a link in an unbroken chain of comparisons between the shipborne radiometer and a traceable reference standard. A second-generation water bath blackbody reference radiance source has been developed for this purpose. The second generation Concerted Action for the Study of the Ocean Thermal Skin (CASOTS-II) blackbody has a 110-mm-diameter aperture cylinder-cone geometry coated with NEXTEL suede 3103 paint. Interchangeable aperture stops reduce the cavity aperture diameter and minimize stray radiation. Monte Carlo modeling techniques show the effective emissivity of the cavity to be >0.9999 (aperture < 30 mm). The cavity is immersed in a water bath that is vigorously stirred using a pump that slowly heats the water bath at a mean rate of 0.6 K h1. The temperature of the water bath is measured using a thermometer traceable to the International System of Units (SI) standards. The worst-case radiance temperature of the CASOTS-II blackbody system is traceable to the SI with an uncertainty of 58 mK (millikelvin). When operating under typical laboratory conditions using an aperture of 40 mm, the uncertainty is 16 mK. An intercomparison with the U.K. National Physical Laboratory Absolute Measurements of Blackbody Emitted Radiance (AMBER) reference radiometer found no significant differences within 75 mK (110-mm aperture) or 50 mK (40-mm aperture), which is the combined uncertainty of the comparison and the reference standard for SI traceability of ISAR radiometer SSTskin records used for satellite SST validation. Applications of the CASOTS-II blackbody to monitor the calibration of shipborne radiometers are described and measurement protocols are proposed.