Flat-field calibration method for large diameter survey mirror aperture splicing

The accurate flat-field calibration of large-diameter space survey telescopes is an important prerequisite for achieving some established scientific goals. At present, it is common practice to provide a uniform flat-field reference through a flat-field screen or a large-diameter integrating sphere, which is used to check the consistency of an image’s plane response. To address issues with the uniformity of flat-field screen illumination and the difficulty of preparing large-size integrating spheres, a flat-field calibration method based on sub-aperture scanning is proposed in this paper, which improves the uniformity of the flat-field reference and the uncertain calibration caused by stray light. First, we complete a sub-aperture flat-field calibration theory analysis, establish a sub-aperture flat-field calibration mathematical model, plan the sub-aperture scanning route and scan aperture size, and perform the initial design of the parameters of the collimation system for calibration. Secondly, we complete the image surface illumination simulation verification experiment. Finally, we set up an experiment to scan the planned sub-apertures, build full-aperture illuminance data, and verify the feasibility of the above-mentioned large-aperture space survey telescope sub-aperture stitching flat-field calibration scheme. The experimental results show that the full-aperture illuminance information can be restored using the full-aperture stitching method to scan the image surface energy of the system and by using the sub-aperture stitching method to compare and contrast the full-aperture image surface illuminance. The superimposed gray value in our experiment was 233.350 and the error was 1%. It is therefore verified that the sub-aperture stitching method can be used for flat-field calibration of large-diameter sky survey telescopes, and has practical value in real-world applications.