Calibration of 1m aperture infrared theodolite

To measure infrared radiation characteristics of air targets, the calibration system for a 1 m aperture infrared measurement system was designed. A mathematic model of calibration for the infrared measurement system was given and a radiometric calibration system was established by combinations of a cavity blackbody and a collimator as the standard radiation source. Because the spectral response of the infrared measuring system is selective, the calibration principle based on conventional radiometric calibration method has theoretical errors and reduces the precision of radiometric calibration. To solve the problem, a relative spectral calibration method based on a monochromator and a standard radiometer was proposed. The mathematical model was given and a relative spectral calibration was performed. Finally, the experiments on radiation characteristic measurement were performed in the field by using the blackbody as a simulated target. The results show that the measurement max error from the 1 m aperture infrared radiation characteristic measurement system is 9.5% and improves by an average of 8.7% as compared with that of the conventional method. These show that the proposed method meets the requirements of practical applications and is suitable for the radiometric calibration in the out-fields.