LAUSR

Thermal cameras may be used under ambient conditions that differ significantly from the calibration conditions. The effect of ambient temperature on temperature measurement error is examined for MWIR and LWIR cooled thermal cameras. The facilities used include an environmental chamber and an extended area blackbody with temperature controller. Significant differences were observed in the temperatures measured by the cameras placed in different ambient temperatures, with reference to the set blackbody temperatures. Re-calibration was done to account for variations in ambient temperature from 5 oC to on the outputs of the cameras. It was found that after such recalibration, the measurement error was within acceptable accuracy of ±1 °C.