Technical Activities Report
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Strategic Elements:
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Optical measurement services
The Division builds and maintains world-class optical radiation measurement facilities to meet the continued and emerging needs for standards and specialized measurements by government and industry. These facilities are available to government and industry customers through formal calibration services, special tests, and standard reference materials available from NIST Technology Services, or through collaborative research efforts.
The Division maintains facilities for measuring optical properties such as reflectance, retroreflectance, transmittance, color, and gloss; for photometric measurements such as luminous intensity and color temperature; and for radiometric measurements such as spectral radiance, spectral irradiance, spectral power, detector responsivity, and radiance temperature. Additionally, the Division has highly specialized facilities for performing low-background radiometric measurements, for characterizing remote sensing instruments, for measuring the area of precision radiometric apertures, and for determining the absolute optical power, radiance, and irradiance spectral responsivities of instruments. New facilities are being developed to improve the measurement of the spectral reflectance and transmittance of materials and the measurement of far-infrared to near-infrared radiation for application to satellite remote sensing of weather and climate.
The Division strives to ensure the quality of these programs by publishing our research results and measurement methodologies (as NIST Special Publications and in outside, peer-reviewed archival journals), by participating in measurement comparisons with other laboratories, and by maintaining a measurement quality program. The Division aids good optical radiation measurement practice by developing general approaches to improve quality and reduce measurement time, by publishing training documents, and by offering formal, short courses in photometry, spectroradiometry, spectrophotometry, and radiation temperature measurement.
< Optical measurement methods |
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Table of Contents:
General Information:
Gerald Fraser, Division Chief
301-975-3797 Telephone
Tina Pipes, Division Secretary
301-975-2316 Telephone
Arvella Kuehl, Administrative Specialist
301-975-2165 Telephone
100 Bureau Drive, M/S 8440
Gaithersburg, MD 20899-8440
301-869-5700 Facsimile