Pre-flight calibration of a multi-channel polarization remote sensor aerial polarimetric radiometer

In optical remote sensing images, the primary contaminants comprise atmospheric aerosols, water vapor, clouds, and other atmospheric components, all of which significantly reduce the quantitative accuracy of parameters such as surface reflectance and modulation transfer function (MTF). To fulfill the application requirements for aerial image atmospheric correction, our approach involves simultaneously capturing multi-spectral polarized radiometric information across the visible, near-infrared, and short-wave infrared bands. This approach enables the retrieval of critical atmospheric parameters, such as aerosol and water vapor characteristics. We propose a system design for aerial atmospheric multi-angle polarization detection and develop an Aerial Polarized Radiometer accordingly. Firstly, we introduce the optical system design of the aerial polarized radiometer based on the theory of multi-aperture polarized light detection. To ensure accurate and timely collection of atmospheric spectral polarized radiometric information, with temporal synchronization and spatial correspondence in aerial atmospheric images, we design a multi-channel signal synchronous acquisition and transmission system based on aperture polarization detection. This system is capable of simultaneously capturing multi-channel spectral polarized detection information, effectively reducing the risks of pseudo-polarization phenomena and inconsistent detection targets across different bands that are often caused by asynchronous acquisition. Secondly, we elaborate on the design of the acquisition system and the acquisition timing of the dual Analog-to-Digital converters. The experimental results reveal that the stability error of the Aerial Polarized Radiometer in dark conditions is less than 0.1%. The signal-to-noise ratio of the Aerial Polarized Radiometer within its detection target range can reach 84 dB, while its non-linearity error is lower than 1%. The polarization detection accuracy is less than 0.16% within the range of 0.1∼0.3 linear polarization degree targets, satisfying the design specifications for aerial atmospheric polarization detection.