<title>Absolute radiometric code (ARC)</title>

Abstract

The Absolute Radiometric Code (ARC) is a collection of Matlab functions tied together under a Matlab Graphical User Interface (GUI). ARC was developed as part ofthe Satellite Imaging Experiment (SIE) conducted by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) at Ki,iJand AFB, in order to get fast estimates of the Optical Cross Sections (OCS) of various satellites. ARC uses multiple star measurements to calculate the atmospheric and optical transmission ofthe system. The transmissions are then used to compute the optical cross section of an object. Generally, the optical transmission of a sensor system can be characterized quite well, so it serves as a sanity check on all ARC results. The atmospheric transmission changes considerably from night to night and even from hour to hour on the same night. ARC uses a collection of calibration stars at various elevation angles to determine the atmospheric transmission through the viewing times. The star calibration is generally taken several times during the experiment period.