MIRAS In-Orbit Calibration

MIRAS has two types of in-orbit calibration: external, in which the instrument makes a maneuver to point to the cold sky, and internal, in which noise is injected to the receivers. This one in turn has two modes, one of short duration carried out periodically interspersed with scene measurements, and other lasting a full orbit and used to obtain the more stable parameters and the sensitivity of all parameters with temperature. These procedures have already been implemented and have been tested at EADS-CASA in the fully integrated instrument. The results show that the in-orbit internal calibration accurately retrieves the needed parameters and will allow to obtain high quality data.