Title: NIST Team Wins Bronze Medal for Accurate Moon Reflection Measurements
A team of scientists from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has been awarded a bronze medal for their groundbreaking work in measuring the sunlight reflected by the moon with unprecedented accuracy. The team, led by Steven Brown, John Woodward, Steven Grantham, Thomas C. Larason, Stephen Maxwell, and Clarence Zarobila, achieved measurements accurate to better than 1%, a significant improvement over the previous 10% discrepancies.
To accomplish this feat, the researchers developed a novel NIST telescope-spectrometer system that was mounted in the wing of a high-altitude aircraft. This innovative approach allowed them to capture detailed measurements of the moon’s reflection under various conditions.
The moon’s reflection has long been considered a stable standard for calibrating satellite sensors used in Earth climate studies. However, the previous inaccuracies had prevented its widespread acceptance for absolute calibration purposes. With the NIST team’s improved measurements, government agencies and satellite companies can now save money and enhance the performance of their climate monitoring systems by using the moon as a reliable calibration standard.
Keywords: Calibration, Standardization, Satellite, Metrology, Sensors
