Spatio-temporal noise and drift in fiber optic distributed temperature sensing

Distributed temperature sensing (DTS) allows for simultaneous measurement at many remote locations along an optical fiber probe and is a valuable tool in a broad range of applications, such as downhole oil production, dike structural monitoring or fire protection. The specific requirements on spatial, temporal and temperature resolution and on absolute measurement uncertainty vary with the applications. We investigate the spatio-temporal noise and drift properties of two exemplary Raman backscatter DTS systems and discuss the effect of spatial and temporal data averaging. An Allan deviation analysis provides insight into the optimal degree of averaging for a given distance range along the fiber probe. A temperature calibration procedure is employed to retrieve the temperature sensitivity of the DTS system and to compensate for the systematic spatial slope of recorded DTS temperature measurement traces. In response to small temperature steps of a thermally homogeneous and stable water bath environment, we observe a temperature resolution of approximately 0.05 degrees C at a chosen 1000 m sampling distance along the fiber probe.