Optical System Design of a Wide Field-of-View Camera for the Characterization of Earth’s Reflected Solar Radiation

Abstract

We report on the conceptual design of a new wide field-of-view shortwave camera, for measuring Earth’s reflected solar radiation. The camera comprises a commercial-off-the-shelf CMOS sensor, and a custom-designed wide field-of-view lens system with an opening angle of 140°. The estimated effective nadir resolution is 2.2 km. The simulated stand-alone random error of the broadband albedo is 3%. The camera is suited for integration within 1U of a CubeSat.

Keywords

• earth radiation budget
• earth energy imbalance
• reflected solar radiation
• wide field-of-view
• space instrumentation
• radiative transfer