Fluke Calibrator Video

Emissivity makes a temperature difference for infrared thermometers.

In the YouTube video below, Frank Liebman, an engineer with Fluke Corporation's Hart Scientific Division demonstrates the impact that surface emissivity has on temperature measurement and temperature calibration using a modified Fluke blackbody calibrator and Fluke Thermal Imager.



We were surprised to see that no one commented on this video, despite an ending that leaves one hanging, at least us, with the obvious question: How do you do a radiometric calibration of a surface of unknown emissivity using a Fluke Blackbody Calibrator?

Do you have any ideas?

What The Heck is Emissivity? (Part 2)

Fill up two soda cans with hot water and wrap one in scotch tape. Which one will cool down faster? Obvious, right?

Check it out, you might be surprised!

From the ITC Channel at YouTube.com

Measurement of the surface emissivity of turbid waters

Chinese Journal of Oceanology and Limnology, Volume 5, Number 4, 363-369, DOI: 10.1007/BF02843818

"Measurement of the surface emissivity of turbid waters", Liu Wenyao, R. T. Field, R. G. Gantt and V. Klemas

http://www.springerlink.com/content/8102732046620458/

Abstract
For interpreting thermal IR imagery of the ocean surface, the emissivity of the sea surface is usually assumed to be constant, approximately 0.98. However, the emissivity varies with the roughness of the sea surface, and the concentration and type of suspended particulates.

The emissivity variations caused by the suspended sediments introduce significant errors in the satellite-derived temperature maps of turbid coastal waters.