Since that time many needs have changed and applications have expanded. With the changes that are occurring, it becomes appropriate to review how NIST s calibration efforts have expanded, the rationale behind the development sequence used, new requirements being solicited, and new capabilities being developed. It included prepared presentations from both NIST and NIST users, a meeting of the Users Advisory Board, and facility tours. Most of the papers presented described methods and equipment used to test infrared sensors. These applications also serve to identify the key issues involved in ground testing and calibration.
Blackbodies give the desired broadband energy output.
The collimator makes the target appear to the sensor as a realistically distant object. For accurate calibration, the flux entering the sensor must be known. Measuring the flux in front of the sensor involves much of the same technology and difficulty as building the sensor itself but is much more direct. Concurrently, engineers from the active sensor test chambers proposed a round-robin telescope for measuring the flux in each chamber. The uncertainty level that could have been achieved with detector technology of that era is unclear.