The DARA/PROBA-3 radiometer: results from the preflight calibration campaign

The Project for On-Board Autonomy-3 (PROBA-3) is the fourth satellite technology development and demonstration precursor mission within ESA's GSTP (General Support Technology Program) series. The primary mission objective is to demonstrate the technologies required for formation flying of multiple spacecrafts. The PROBA-3 mission concept comprises two independent minisatellites in highly-elliptical Earth orbits in precise formation flying, close to one another with the ability to accurately control the attitude and separation of the two satellites. The mission launch is scheduled for end of 2023.

PROBA-3 mission consists of a coronograph spacecraft, hosting the coronograph APIICS, and the occulter spacecraft with the Digital Absolute RAdiometer (DARA).  The radiometer to record total solar irradiance is mounted on the front satellite pointing to the Sun. DARA is  developed and manufactured in Switzerland by the PMOD/WRC. We have done two pre-flight calibration campaigns: one at the World Radiation Center in Davos, Switzerland, and one at the Total Solar Irradiance (TSI) Radiometer Facility of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics in Boulder Colorado, USA. We report on the results of the laboratory comparisons and discuss uncertainties of several instrument parameters, which are used to transform the raw measurements, which are voltage and current, into solar irradiance values.