Design and Characteristic Measurement of 8000 mm Large Aperture Integrating Sphere

Integrating spheres play a central role in the radiometric calibration of remote sensors. With the development of the wide field of view (FOV) remote sensors, aperture diameters of remote sensors are becoming larger and larger. To satisfy the radiometric calibration requirements of full FOV and full aperture, an 8000mm diameter large aperture integrating sphere uniform source with a variable exit port was designed and manufactured. This integrating sphere will be used for pre-launch test and radiometric calibration of remote satellites. In this paper, optical theories were used to design the output spectral radiance. The LightTools software based on ray-tracing simulation method was used to determine the best combination and distribution of inner light sources. A spectral experiment was made to verify the spectral radiance design. To reduce the influence of longtime power-on, a new characteristic measurement method was developed to obtain the radiation characteristic of the integrating sphere, which could greatly improve the measuring efficiency. This method could also be applied to measure other large aperture uniform sources. The obtained results indicate that the spatial uniformity is 98.35%, and the angular uniformity at center position is 98.78%.