Independent Laboratory Characterization of NEO HySpex Imaging Spectrometers VNIR-1600 and SWIR-320m-e

Abstract

DLR's Remote Sensing Technology Institute (IMF) operates two sensors for airborne hyperspectral imaging, a NEO (Norsk Elektro Optikk A/S) HySpex VNIR-1600 and a NEO HySpex SWIR-320m-e. Since these sensors are used for the development of physically-based inversion algorithms, atmospheric correction algorithms and for calibration/validation activities, their properties need to be characterized in detail, and an accurate calibration is mandatory. The characterization is performed at DLR's calibration laboratory for imaging spectrometers in Oberpfaffenhofen. Key results of the characterization are assessments of the radiometric, spectral and geometric performances, including the typical optical distortions prevalent in pushbroom imaging spectrometers, keystone and smile, and the associated measurement uncertainties. Potential sources of systematic error, the detector nonlinearity and the polarization sensitivity are discussed. The radiometric calibration is performed traceably to the German national metrology institute PTB, while the spectral measurements can be traced back to the spectral properties of atomic line lamps. The implemented level 0 to level 1 calibration procedure is presented as well.