Progress Toward Evaluating Prelaunch Thermal Vacuum Tests of the JPSS-2 CRIS Instrument

The Cross-track Infrared Sounder (CrIS) [1] is currently undergoing Thermal Vacuum Testing (TVAC) before integration with the Joint Polar Satellite System-2 (JPSS-2) satellite prior to the planned launch in 2022. During these tests, the NOAA/CrIS Sensor Data Record (SDR) team aims to independently evaluate the performance of the new CrIS instrument. Here, we will present our work assessing the instrument noise and the brightness temperature measurement from external calibration targets (ECTs) as a function of its stepped temperature. The latter test will be used to calculate the radiometric nonlinearity correction applied to the complex spectra. Additional tests that will take place during TVAC include the evaluation of noise during vibration testing, analyzing slit scan data to determine the Field-Of-View (FOV) crosstalk, processing gas cell data to derive the spectral calibration coefficients, and measuring ECTs to validate the radiometric calibration of CrIS.