Abstract. Spatially heterogeneous Earth radiance scenes affect the atmospheric composition measurements of high-resolution Earth observation spectrometer missions. The scene heterogeneity creates a pseudo-random deformation of the instrument spectral response function (ISRF). The ISRF is the direct link between the forward radiative transfer model, used to retrieve the atmospheric state, and the spectra measured by the instrument. Hence, distortions of the ISRF owing to radiometric inhomogeneity of the imaged Earth scene will degrade the precision of the Level-2 retrievals. Therefore, the spectral requirements of an instrument are often parameterized in the knowledge of the ISRF over non-uniform scenes in terms of shape, centroid position of the spectral channel and the full width at half maximum (FWHM). The Sentinel-5/UVNS instrument is the first push-broom spectrometer that makes use of a concept referred to as a slit homogenizer (SH) for the mitigation of spatially non-uniform scenes. This is done by employing a spectrometer slit formed by two parallel mirrors scrambling the scene in the along track direction (ALT) and hence averaging the scene contrast only in the spectral direction. The flat mirrors do not affect imaging in the across track direction (ACT) and thus preserve the spatial information in that direction. The multiple reflections inside the SH act as coherent virtual light sources and the resulting interference pattern at the SH exit plane can be described by simulations using scalar diffraction theory. By homogenizing the slit illumination, the SH strongly modifies the spectrograph pupil illumination as a function of the input scene. In this work we investigate the impact and strength of the variations of the spectrograph pupil illumination for different scene cases and quantify the impact on the ISRF stability for different types of aberration present in the spectrograph optics.

The measurement accuracy of recent and future space-based imaging spectrometers with a high spectral and spatial resolution suffer from the inhomogeneity of the radiances of the observed Earth scene. The Instrument Spectral Response Function (ISRF) is distorted due to the inhomogeneous illumination from scene heterogeneity. This gives rise to a pseudo-random error on the measured spectra. In order to assess the spectral stability of the spectrograph, stringent requirements are typically defined on the ISRF such as shape knowledge and the stability of the centroid position of the spectral sample. The high level of spectral accuracy is particularly crucial for missions quantifying small variations in the total column of well-mixed trace gases like $$\hbox {CO}_{2}$$ CO 2 . In the framework of the $$\hbox {CO}_{2}$$ CO 2 Monitoring Mission (CO2M) industrial feasibility study (Phase A/B1 study), we investigated a new slit design called 2D-Slit Homogenizer (2DSH). This new concept aims to reduce the Earth scene contrast entering the instrument. The 2DSH is based on optical fibre waveguides assembled in a bundle, which scramble the light in across-track (ACT) and along-track (ALT) direction. A single fibre core dimension in ALT defines the spectral extent of the slit and the dimension in ACT represents the spatial sample of the instrument. The full swath is given by the total size of the adjoined fibres in ACT direction. In this work, we provide experimental measurement data on the stability of representative rectangular core shaped fibre as well as a preliminary pre-development of a 2DSH fibre bundle. In our study, the slit concept has demonstrated significant performance gains in the stability of the ISRF for several extreme high-contrast Earth scenes, achieving a shape stability of $$<0.5{\%}$$ < 0.5 % and a centroid stability of $$<0.25 \ \text {pm}$$ < 0.25 pm (NIR). Given this unprecedented ISRF stabilization, we conclude that the 2DSH concept efficiently desensitizes the instrument for radiometric and spectral errors with respect to the heterogeneity of the Earth scene radiance.

The analysis of recent Earth observation spectrometer missions revealed the impact of spatially heterogeneous Earth radiance scenes on the spectral accuracy of the instruments. One of the most critical observations is the distortion of the instrument spectral response function (ISRF) induced by radiometric contrast in the Earth radiance scene. In order to meet the high precision and accuracy of quantifying the spatial distribution of the atmospheric composition, stringent requirements on the ISRF knowledge are defined such as shape stability, centroid position of the spectral channel centre and the Full Width at Half Maximum (FWHM). In the framework of the CO2M A/B1 study, Airbus investigated a new slit concept called 2D-slit homogenizer (2DSH) for the mitigation of spatially non-uniform scenes. This is done by replacing the classical spectrometer slit with non-circular core multimode fibres, which scramble the light in along-track (ALT) and across-track (ACT) direction and hence average the contrast of the Earth scene in both dimensions. The final 2DSH will be made of several adjoined fibres, assembled in a bundle. A single fibre core dimension defines the spectral extent of the slit (ALT) and the minimum achievable spatial sample (ACT). Consequently, the full swath width covered by the instrument is given by the total size of the fibre bundle in ACT. Here, we present an experimental validation of the 2DSH in terms of scrambling efficiency and radiometry. In order to probe the fibre characteristics for non-uniform scenes, we designed and constructed a setup which allows us to track and tune multiple high contrast scene cases as a fibre input facet illumination. The scrambling efficiency performance of the fibre is assessed by measuring the near-and far-field intensity distribution of light transmitted through the fibre for different scene cases. Furthermore, we analyze the impact of focal ratio degradation in terms of radiometric losses and compare the results in the NIR and SWIR wavelength for different stress cases on the fibre.

Abstract. The spectral accuracy of high resolution Earth observation spectrometer missions is affected by the impact of spatially heterogeneous Earth radiance scenes on the instrument spectral response function (ISRF). As the ISRF is the direct link between the forward radiative transfer model and the spectra measured by the instrument, distortions of the iSRF owing to radiometric inhomogeneity of the imaged Earth scene will degrade the precision of the Level-2 retrievals. Therefore, the spectral requirements of an instrument are often parametrized in the knowledge of the ISRF over non-uniform scenes in terms of shape, centroid position of the spectral channel and the Full Width at Half Maximum (FWHM). The Sentinel-5/UVNS instrument is the first push-broom spectrometer that makes use of a concept referred as slit homogenizer (SH) for the mitigation of spatially non-uniform scenes. This is done by employing a spectrometer slit formed by two parallel mirrors, scrambling the scene in along track direction (ALT) and hence averaging the scene contrast only in the spectral direction. The flat mirrors do not affect imaging in the across track direction (ACT) and thus preserve the spatial information in that direction. The multiple reflections inside the SH act as coherent virtual light sources and the resulting interference pattern at the SH exit plane can be described by simulations using scalar diffraction theory. By homogenizing the slit illumination, the SH moreover strongly modifies the spectrograph pupil as a function of the input scene. In this work we investigate the impact and strength of spectrograph pupil variations for different scene cases and quantify the impact on the ISRF stability for different type of aberrations present in the spectrograph optics.