Temperature in space - how and why we make consistently accurate measurements in the most inhospitable environment (emf2026)

This talk, from a space telescope electronics engineer, looks at the background of some earth observation and astronomy missions and dives into the technology behind them. Looking at real flight hardware developed at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Harwell, I’ll discuss the importance of thermometry, how we measure incredibly accurate temperature from orbit, and how we know that these measurements are “true” and not garbage-in, garbage-out. We’ll look at JWST and the MIRI instrument, Sentinel-3 and the SLSTR instrument, and the next gen hardware I’ve been working on over the last few years. Finally, as I’m as much of a space nerd as the rest of you, I’ll be playing a high dynamic range recording of the NG-11 Antares launch out of Wallops AFB. Licensed to the public under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ about this event: https://www.emfcamp.org/schedule/2026/40-temperature-in-space-how