Monte Carlo simulations of ambient temperature uncertainty determined by dual-band pyrometry

The Monte Carlo technique for uncertainty propagation was used to estimate the uncertainty of ambient temperature measurements, obtained by dual-band pyrometry, of assumed grey surfaces. A large number of simulations were performed for a wide range of values from the following parameters: uncertainty of the detectors, emissivity of the target surface, background temperature of the surrounding surfaces, and spectral characteristics of the detectors (bandwidth, location of the bands, and distance between bands). Temperature measurement uncertainties from single-band pyrometry were also simulated for evaluation against dual-band uncertainties. It is concluded that the following parameters minimize dual-band temperature uncertainty: narrow wavelength bands, far apart from each other, positioned towards low wavelengths; low surface emissivity; high or low background temperature with respect to the target surface temperature (uncertainty grows very fast as the background and target temperatures converge, and tends to a constant minimum value as the background and target temperatures diverge).