Armstrong Optical is distributing the RAD-900 infrared radiometer, manufactured by Optikos. The radiometer allows users to make precise measurements of radiometric temperature and spectral radiance. The system operates in the both the medium and long wave infrared bands (MWIR and LWIR), and may be used to carry out both 1D and 2D source radiance measurements when installed on the ASB-920 angular scan base, also manufactured by Optikos.
Through its calibration, the RAD-900 provides traceability to national standards and to the international temperature scale. Most thermal target generators are factory calibrated to provide precise physical temperature differences between their foreground and background, however the reflective or refractive collimators with which they are typically paired can attenuate the radiation from these target generators, making the thermal contrast of the target appear smaller than the physical difference. The RAD-900 provides an accurate means of performing a radiometric calibration for a thermal target generation system by accurately measuring the radiometric temperature difference of the target as a function of the physical temperature difference. In this role, it is an essential component of a complete thermal-imager testing laboratory.
With a NIST traceable radiometric calibration the RAD-900 has an absolute accuracy of less than 0.1ºC and serves as a cavity blackbody transfer standard for calibrating infrared sources. The minimum resolvable temperature difference (MRTD) of 0.002ºC and angular resolution (instantaneous field of view) of 1mRad per 0.05ºC make the RAD-900 applicable to a wide range of measurement requirements.
The RAD-900 has been designed with input from the many RAD-600 and RAD-800 users around the world, and features many enhancements to the original systems.