Calibration procedure developed for IR surface-temperature measurements

A calibration procedure is provided that improves the accuracy and precision of two-dimensional temperature measurement. An infrared (IR) microscope detects energy emitted by the target and displays it as a radiance image. Heating the target to two known temperatures permits calculation of the target emissivity field. An error is induced in the emissivity calculation by substituting the thermal well temperature for the target surface temperatures. The two noise functions that distort the radiance image and effect the measurement accuracy have been characterized and numerically corrected. The random noise field function that alters the precision of the instrument has been minimized. Correction of the distortions and reduction of the random noise noticeably improve the two-dimensional emissivity and temperature images. The accuracy of the point temperature measurements improved by a factor of 8.<>