EWS Rapid Revisit Optical Cloud Imager (RROCI) Early on-Orbit Demonstration Results

The U.S. Space Force is evaluating technologies for a new Electro-Optical/Infrared (EO/IR) weather system (EWS) constellation to provide global cloud characterization and theater weather imagery to Department of Defense Weather Centrals. The Rapid Revisit Optical Cloud Imager (RROCI) satellite built by Orion Space Solutions, an Arcfield company, is a CubeSat technology demonstration mission designed to collect weather imagery in 8 visible and infrared spectral bands. The instrumentation payload consists of nadir Vis, SWIR and LWIR cameras with filters set to the target wavelengths. The measurements were validated using NOAA Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on NOAA-20 and from the NOAA GOESR Series Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI). Instrument-level radiometric accuracy and noise numbers were found to be consistent with the pre-launch calibration data and model predictions. Critical to the mission objectives are measurements in the longwave-infrared bands. RROCI used microbolometer detectors which maintained radiometric stability over the 100-minute on-orbit calibration period. Using pre-launch calibration data, we have successfully demonstrated using the microbolometer to perform these radiometric measurements over a much longer timeframe than the estimated 14 hour maximum established with pre-launch data. This radiometric data, when compared with VIIRS and ABI, shows that the payload can achieve the EWS weather objectives.