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Published May 2017 | public
Journal Article

Preflight Spectral Calibration of the Orbiting Carbon Observatory 2

Abstract

This paper describes the preflight spectral calibration methods and results for the Orbiting Carbon Observatory 2 (OCO-2), following the approach developed for the first OCO. The instrument line shape (ILS) function and dispersion parameters were determined through laser-based spectroscopic measurements, and then further optimized by comparing solar spectra recorded simultaneously on the ground by the OCO-2 flight instrument and a collocated high-resolution Fourier transform spectrometer (FTS). The resulting ILS profiles and dispersion parameters, when applied to the FTS solar data, showed agreement between the spectra recorded by the spectrometers and FTS to approximately 0.2% RMS, satisfying the preflight spectral calibration accuracy requirement of <0.25% RMS. Specific changes to the OCO-2 instrument and calibration process, compared to the original OCO, include stray-light protection; improved laser setup; increased spectral sampling; enhanced data screening, and incremental improvements in the ILS, dispersion, and FTS optimization analyses.

Additional Information

© 2017 IEEE. Manuscript received January 18, 2016; revised July 7, 2016 and October 31, 2016; accepted December 13, 2016. Date of publication January 27, 2017; date of current version March 17, 2017. This work was supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The authors would like to thank E. Motts for valuable technical information concerning the calibration setup. This research was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Additional details

Created:
August 22, 2023
Modified:
October 25, 2023