Space-based, multispectral, ocean color measurements of the earth's oceans have significantly added to our understanding of the oceans over the past 25 years. All of these past and current space based sensors have operated in low earth orbit with moderate temporal resolution. We describe a mission concept for improved temporal and spectroscopic measurement of the ocean from geosynchronous orbit. This orbit requires that specific, available technologies be integrated into the instrument and spacecraft. For an instrument and spacecraft configured with these technologies this vantage point offers a unique opportunity when viewing dynamic, low reflectance components of the deep-ocean and coastal areas.
This paper provides an overview of the Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES) and its mission, as a part of NASA’s Earth Observing System (EOS). The design of the re-imaging system and its detectors and the test set-up used to characterize the field of view response will be presented. Measured system Response.optical response profiles will be presented for each of the four infrared spectral bands (3.5-5.3, 5.1-9.1, 8.3-12.2 and 11.1 - 15.4μ ) supported by TES. Specific emphasis will be placed upon the comparison of these measured optical response functions with the results of an analytic model of the response. The model includes a simple yet accurate representation of the detector response function, which includes the photo-generated electron’s diffusion length.
The MIRI is the mid-IR (5-28μm) instrument for NGST and provides for imaging, cororographic, high- and low-resolution spectroscopic capabilities. Unlike to the other instruments on NGST, the MIRI must be cooled - to reduce the thermal background from the optics and because the detectors require an operating temperature of about 7k.. In this paper we summarise the science goals, the proposed overall opto-mechanical concept, the thermal design aspects, the detectors and the expected sensitivity of the instrument.
Edward Miller, Gail Klein, David Juergens, Kenneth Mehaffey, Jeffrey Oseas, Ramon Garcia, Anthony Giandomenico, Robert Irigoyen, Roger Hickok, David Rosing, Harold Sobel, Carl Bruce, Enrico Flamini, Romeo DeVidi, Francis Reininger, Michele Dami, Alain Soufflot, Yves Langevin, Gerard Huntzinger
The visual and infrared mapping spectrometer (VIMS) is a remote sensing instrument developed for the Cassini mission to Saturn by an international team representing the national space agencies of the United States, Italy, and France. A dual imaging spectrometer, VIMS' unique design consists of two optical systems boresighted and operating in tandem, coordinated by a common electronics unit. The combined optical system generates 352 2D images simultaneously, each in a separate, contiguous waveband. These are combined by the electronics to produce 'image cubes' in which each image pixel represents a spectrum spanning 0.3 to 5.1 microns in 352 steps. VIMS images will be used to produce detailed spatial maps of the distribution of mineral and chemical species of Saturn's atmosphere, rings, and moons, and the atmosphere of Titan. At some wavelengths VIMS will penetrate Titan's atmosphere to map its surface, and image the night side of many Saturnian objects.
Patricia Beauchamp, Robert Benoit, Robert Brown, Carl Bruce, Gun-Shing Chen, Michael Chrisp, J. Davidson, George Fraschetti, Stanley Petrick, David Rodgers, Bill Sandel, Cesar Sepulveda, Laurence Soderblom, Dexter Wang, Stanley Soll, Roger Yelle
The planetary integrated camera-spectrometer, PICS, is a highly integrated sensor system which performs the functions of three optical instruments: a near infrared (IR) spectrometer, a visible imaging camera, and an ultraviolet (UV) spectrometer. Integration serves to minimize the mass and power required to operate a complex suite of instruments, and automatically yields a comprehensive data set, optimized for correlative analysis. This approach is useful for deep space missions such as Pluto Express and will also enable Galileo/Cassini class remote observations of any object within the solar system. In our baseline concept, a single set of lightweight multiwavelength foreoptics is shared by a UV imaging spectrometer (80 spectral channels 70 - 150 nm), a two-CCD visible imaging system (shuttered in two colors 300 - 500 nm and 500 - 1000 nm), and a near-IR imaging spectrometer (256 spectral channels 1300-2600 nm). The entire structure, including its optics, is built from silicon carbide (SiC) for thermal and dimensional stability. In addition, there are no moving parts and each spectrometer covers a single octave in wavelength. A separate port is provided for measurement of a UV solar occultation and for spectral radiance calibration of the IR and visible subsystems. The integrated science that the PICS will yield meets or exceeds all of the Priority-1A science objectives, and many Priority 1-B science objectives as well, for the Pluto Express Mission. This paper provides details of the PICs instrument design, fabrication and testing, both at the sub-assembly and the instrument level. In all tests, including optical, thermal vacuum, and structural/dynamics, the PICS hardware prototype met or exceeded functional requirements.
A comparison of photovoltaic HgCdTe/Al2O3, HgCdTe/CdZnTe, InGaAs/InP and photoconductive GaAs/AlGaAs quantum well infrared photodetector detector technologies has been conducted at Rockwell by exploiting the ability to selectively hybridize disparate mosaic detector arrays to an assortment of silicon multiplexers. Hybrid FPA characteristics are reported as functions of operating temperature from 32.5 K to room temperature and at photon backgrounds from approximately equals 106 to mid-1016 photons/cm2-sec. The staring arrays range in size from about sixteen thousand to over a million pixels. Background-limited detectivities significantly exceeding 1014 cm-(root)Hz/W were achieved.
Patricia Beauchamp, Robert Brown, Carl Bruce, Gun-Shing Chen, Michael Chrisp, George Fraschetti, Timothy Krabach, Stanley Petrick, David Rodgers, J. Rodriguez, Stanley Soll, Arthur Vaughan, Laurence Soderblom, Bill Sandel, Roger Yelle
We describe an integrated instrument that will perform the functions of three optical instruments required by a Pluto Fast Flyby mission: a near-IR spectrometer (256 spectral channels, 1300 - 2600 nm), a two-channel imaging camera (300 - 500 nm, 500 - 1000 nm), and a UV spectrometer (160 spectral channels, 70 - 150 nm). A separate port, aligned in a direction compatible with radio occultation experiments, is provided for measurement of a UV solar occultation and for spectral radiance calibration of the IR and visible subsystems. Our integrated approach minimizes mass and power use, and promotes the adoption of integrated observational sequences and power management to ensure compatible duty cycles for data acquisition, compression, and storage. From flight mission experience, we believe the integrated approach will yield substantial cost savings in design, integration, and sequence planning. The integrated payload inherently provides a cohesive mission data set, optimized for correlative analysis. A breadboard version of the instrument is currently being built and is expected to be fully functional be late summer.
In this paper we describe the main subsystems that constitute the Mt. Palomar Prime Focus InfraRed Camera (PFIRCAM), together with some of the characterization data obtained for the focal plane array. This camera is currently a facility instrument at the 200-inch Mt. Palomar Observatory. It helps to satisfy the observational needs of astronomers in the spectral range of 1 micrometers to 2.5 micrometers by utilizing a HgCdTe NICMOS3 array. The camera has a plate scale of 0.54 arcsec/pixel for an overall FOV of 138 X 138 arcsec.
A NICMOS II array, a NIR (0.80 - 2.6 micron) imaging system, was integrated into the California Institute of Technology Palomar Observatory camera. The Palomar camera system which consists of six discrete subsystems including a focal plane, an electrical interface, data acquisition electronics, a dewar, dewar optics, and the software is described. The performance and calibration data for each subsystem are presented. Emphasis is placed on test data on the focal plane performance.
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