The demand of instrumentation in the field of remote sensing is increasing rapidly. For international compatibility, for reliable results and precise long-term investigation, necessary for example in the measurement of climatic trends, accurate traceability of the results to international standards or SI-units is mandatory. Additionally, interpretation of the results strongly requires a careful evaluation of the involved errors and the resulting uncertainties in order to allow for a rating of the obtained results. For that purpose quality assurance was introduced, not only for industrial fabrication, but also, and with increasing tendency, for industrial and scientific research. As an overview, the necessity and the possibilities of quality assurance in the area of remote sensing are discussed. Taking remote sensing of temperature as an example, the general approach is described. For that purpose, a description of heatpipe blackbodies used as standard radiation sources and of the apparatus for measuring the area of the beam limiting apertures is given. We also introduce the applied mathematical model for determination of the emissivity of the blackbodies, which crucially influenced the detected radiation temperature and the uncertainty. Finally the evaluation procedure of the uncertainties is described and a sophisticated estimation of the overall uncertainty is presented.

Date Published: 16 September 1999
PDF: 9 pages
Proc. SPIE 3821, Environmental Sensing and Applications, (16 September 1999); doi: 10.1117/12.364203

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 3821:
Environmental Sensing and Applications
Michel R. Carleer; Moira Hilton; Torsten Lamp; Rainer Reuter; George M. Russwurm; Klaus Schaefer; Konradin Weber; Klaus C. H. Weitkamp; Jean-Pierre Wolf; Ljuba Woppowa, Editor(s)