Concept
Thermal Infrared Sensor
| URI | http://vocab.nerc.ac.uk/collection/L22/current/TOOL1056/1/ | |
|---|---|---|
| Within Vocab | SeaVoX Device Catalogue | |
| Alternative Labels | TIRS | |
| Definition | The Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS) is a push-boom sensor designed to measure land surface temperature in two thermal bands for high-resolution land and vegetation observation. A four-element refractive telescope focuses an f/1.64 beam of thermal radiation onto a cryogenically cooled focal plane, which holds three modules with quantum-well-infrared-photodetector (QWIP) arrays arranged in an alternating pattern along the focal plane centerline. The QWIPs detect long wavelengths of light emitted by the Earth whose intensity depends on surface temperature. The QWIPs TIRS uses are sensitive to two thermal infrared wavelength bands, helping it separate the temperature of the Earth’s surface from that of the atmosphere. Their design operates on the complex principles of quantum mechanics. Gallium arsenide semiconductor chips trap electrons in an energy state 'well' until the electrons are elevated to a higher state by thermal infrared light of a certain wavelength. The elevated electrons create an electrical signal that can be read out and recorded to create a digital image. Each QWIP array is 640 detectors long cross-track allowing for overlap between the arrays to produce an effective linear array of 1850 pixels, spanning the 185 km ground swath with a 100 m spatial resolution. The spectral bands have wavelengths centred on 10.8 micrometres (band 1) and 12 micrometres (band 2). http://landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov/?p=5474 | |
| Date | None | |
| Identifier | TOOL1056 | |
| Note | accepted | |
| Is Version Of | TOOL1056 | |
| version | 1 | |
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