Pollock contributes to new NIST Handbook

Dr. David B. Pollock is a contributing author to the newest edition of a National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Handbook.
UAH

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (Aug. 21, 2014) -David B. Pollock, an associate research professor and senior research scientist in the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) Electrical and Computer Engineering Department and Optics Department, is a contributing author to the newest edition of a National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Handbook, "Guidelines for Radiometric Calibration of Electro-Optical Instruments for Remote Sensing."

Under development since 2012, this new handbook is a national level publication intended to provide guidelines for the radiometric calibration of imaging, spectral-imaging, narrow and broadband radiometers built by the aerospace industry, universities, and national laboratories.

This NIST handbook is intended to be a reference for managers, technical oversight personnel, scientists and engineers to assure sensor calibrations are successful. Success begins with planning and continues throughout a sensor operational lifetime. Sensor applications are broadly based; the handbook is applicable to sensors on-board satellite, aircraft and balloon platforms.

"The data quality produced by calibrated sensors is essential for scientific applications that include studies of land usage, vegetation extent, water temperatures, ice extent, weather status and forecast, military applications, astronomy, as well as basic science, to mention some," says Pollock.

Organizations participating in creating this new handbook include UAH, USGS, Frontier Technology, Space Dynamics Laboratory, Aerospace Corp., NASA, NOAA, NIST and South Dakota State University. Other national laboratories such as the National Physics Laboratory (NPL) of England have a vested interest in valid, accurate data.

"The document is being introduced for publication and distribution," Pollock says. "The introduction is at the 23rd Calibration Conference, an international conference held yearly at Utah State University in Logan, Utah." The publication will be available in the near future for on-line download from the NIST website.

Pollock was also recognized at the recent CALCON Conference on Characterization and Radiometric Calibration for Remote Sensing "for significant contributions to the CALCON Technical Conference and the Calibration Community."