Preliminary Data for Space Grade Spectralon® BRDF Targets & Standards

Spectralon is an extremely stable, near-perfect lambertian reflecting diffuser and calibration standard material that has been used by national labs, space, aerospace and commercial sectors for over two decades. New uncertainty targets of 2% on-orbit absolute validation in the Earth Observing Systems community have challenged the industry to improve is characterization and knowledge of almost every aspect of radiometric performance (space and ground). Assuming “near perfect” reflectance and BRDF performance is no longer going to suffice for many program needs. To ensure lowest possible uncertainty, Spectralon has NVLAP accreditation for total hemispherical spectral reflectance measurements. The hemispherical reflectance provides a good mark of general performance, but without the angular characterization critical data is missing from many applications. Therefore, BRDF measurement capability is needed to characterize Spectralon’s “near perfect” angular response and provide a full uncertainty profile to many users. A preliminary data set will be presented on of materials, instrument capability and resulting measurements. Further data, a paper and complete analysis on products for traceable radiometric BRDF calibration standards will be presented later this year at SPIE Remote Sensing Asia (Oct 13-17, Beijing).