VNIR, MWIR, and LWIR source assemblies for optical quality testing and spectro-radiometric calibration of earth observation satellites

This document presents several original OGSEs, Optical Ground Support Equipment, specifically designed and realized for the optical testing and calibration of earth observation satellites operating in a large spectral band from 0.4 mu m to 14.7 mu m. This work has been mainly supported by recent development dedicated to MTG, Meteosat Third Generation, the ESA next generation of meteorological satellites. The improved measurement capabilities of this new satellite generation has generated new challenging requirements for the associated optical test equipments. These improvements, based on design and component innovation will be illustrated for the MOTA, the GICS and the DEA OGSEs. MOTA and GICS are dedicated to the AIT, Assembly Integration and Test, of FCI, the Flexible Combined Imager of the imaging satellite MTG-I. DEA OGSE is dedicated to the AIT of the DEA, Detection Electronics Assembly, which is part of IRS instrument, an IR sounder part of MTG-S satellite. From an architectural point of view, the presented original designs enable to run many optical tests with a single system thanks to a limited configuration effort. Main measurement capabilities are optical quality testing (MTF based mainly on KEF measurement), Line of Sight (LoS) stability measurement, straylight analyses, VNIR-MWIR-LWIR focal plane array co-registration, and broadband large dynamic spectro-radiometric calibration. Depending on the AIT phase of the satellite, these source assemblies are operated at atmospheric pressure or under secondary vacuum. In operation, they are associated with an opto-mechanical projection system that enables to conjugate the image of the source assembly with the focal plane of the satellite instruments. These conjugation systems are usually based on high resolution, broadband collimator, and are optionally mounted on hexapod to address the entire field of instruments.