Initial design and performance of the near surface unmanned aircraft system sensor suite in support of the GOES-R field campaign.

One of the main objectives of the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite R-Series (GOES-R) field campaign is to validate the SI traceability of the Advanced Baseline Imager. The campaign plans include a feasibility demonstration study for new near surface unmanned aircraft system (UAS) measurement capability that is being developed to meet the challenges of validating geostationary sensors. We report our progress in developing our initial systems by presenting the design and preliminary characterization results of the sensor suite. The design takes advantage of off-the-shelf technologies and fiber-based optical components to make hemispheric directional measurements from a UAS. The characterization results -- including laboratory measurements of temperature effects and polarization sensitivity -- are used to refine the radiometric uncertainty budget towards meeting the validation objectives for the campaign. These systems will foster improved validation capabilities for the GOES-R field campaign and other next generation satellite systems.