SFINX (SRON's Fabry-perot INterferometer eXperiment) consists of a 65 - 90 micrometer wavelength spectrometer based on a Fabry-Perot interferometer, and is equipped with both a conventional Ge:Ga photon detector operating at 4 K, and a novel high-temperature superconductor (HTS) bolometer detector operating at 87 K. The spectral resolution is about 8000, or 0.015 cm-1, comparable with the width of the thermal emission lines of the stratospheric species under study. Target molecules are OH, HCl, HO2, and possibly more. The SFINX instrument now under development will fly as a piggy-back instrument on a stratospheric balloon together with the MIPAS-B2 instrument of IMK/FZK (Karlsruhe, Germany), and can be regarded as a proof of concept for a satellite application. Because of its low satellite resource demands, for a satellite application a SFINX like instrument has great advantages with respect to Fourier transform spectrometers or heterodyne receivers. In particular, the HTS bolometer detector can be cooled by mechanical coolers which are presently available in space- qualified versions, thereby avoiding the use of liquid cryogen.
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