Design and realization of the Evaluation System for space-borne Infrared Earth Sensors

Any satellite payload and new technology must be tested in orbit prior to the production and applications to evaluate its functionality, performance, life and reliability. In order to evaluate all aspects of an infrared earth sensor, it is essential to establish an Infrared Earth Sensor Evaluation System (IESES). This paper describes the design of the evaluation system from both the database establishment and the evaluation system modeling. By analyzing the factors such as data sources, data types and the relationship between data, the database design of the evaluation system is illustrated. Performance evaluation indices of the infrared earth sensor as the random noise equivalent angle, the attitude measurement precision are introduced. The evaluation criterion is presented, and ground validation is carried out to test the algorithm using simulated data. Simulation shows that the algorithm is effective and easy to realize for the infrared earth sensor in-orbit performance evaluation. The evaluation system is designed with the current commonly used computer language and database management system. The availability and portability are good and can be expanded to other payloads evaluation.