Preflight Calibration and Performance Assessment of the Geostationary Interferometric Infrared Sounder (GIIRS) Onboard the FengYun-4B Satellite

The Geostationary Interferometric Infrared Sounder (GIIRS) onboard the FengYun-4B weather satellite provides critical upwelling atmospheric infrared radiance. To address the limitations of the previous sounder (FY-4A/GIIRS) in terms of spatial resolution and spectral coverage, FY-4B/GIIRS has increased the spatial resolution to 12 km and added more spectral channels in the long-wave band to enhance the observation details and information content of weather systems. To evaluate its baseline performance, a comprehensive preflight test campaign—encompassing spectral and radiometric assessments—was conducted in a thermal vacuum (TVAC) chamber. Spectral characterization via laser measurements confirmed the instrument spectral response function (ISRF) is highly consistent with the theoretical cardinal sine function (sinc). Gas-cell tests demonstrated that, after correcting for off-axis effect, the spectral calibration errors are on average less than 5 ppm, validated against Line-By-Line Radiative Transfer Model (LBLRTM) simulations. The radiometric calibration employed temperature-variable blackbodies for noise performance and radiometric accuracy assessments. The radiometric sensitivity, characterized by Noise Equivalent differential Radiance (NEdR), is less than 0.5 and 0.1 mW/(m2·sr·cm−1) in the long-wave infrared (LWIR) and mid-wave infrared (MWIR) bands, respectively. To address the LWIR detector nonlinearity, an iterative polynomial fitting algorithm based on spectral responsivity invariance was implemented. This correction reduces the radiometric deviation from >1.0 K to ~0.2 K, meeting the 0.7 K accuracy requirement across a 180–315 K dynamic range. Conversely, the MWIR band exhibits high linearity but is limited by noise when observing low-temperature scenarios and can only meet the 0.7 K requirement within the range of 250 to 315 K.