PACE Ocean Color Instrument polarization testing and results

The Ocean Color Instrument (OCI) is the primary instrument on NASA’s Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) mission. OCI flight model will be a hyper-spectral scanning (HSS) radiometer designed to measure spectral radiances from the ultraviolet to shortwave infrared (SWIR) currently in development at the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). The OCI engineering model provides hyperspectral coverage from 600nm to 885nm and 7 discrete spectral bands from 940nm to 2260nm. The engineering model’s radiometric response and sensitivity to polarized light has been measured as a function of scan angle in ambient, and in thermal vacuum for nadir viewing. This paper will state the polarization requirements, describe the various polarization measurements and present and discuss the polarization measurement results.