ACD Airborne FTS Spectrometer History Acquired in 1974 for measurements of stratospheric composition Flown 800-1000 hours on NCAR Sabreliner Flown 800-1000 hours on NASA DC-8 Also flown on Electra, P-3 Extensively modified in 1999
ACD Airborne FTS Spectrometer Specifications Aperture 5 cm, Cube corner reflectors Scan length 16 cm OPD (~0.05 cm-1 resolution) Scan time (normal) 6 sec Range 1.6-20 mm (KBr beamsplitter) Dual detectors InSb 2.5-6 mm HgCdTe 6-13 mm Multiple bandpass filters, field stops 16 bit A/D with gain switching (19 bit dynamic range) 2 phase HeNe laser OPD reference Air bearing moving mirror support
ACD Airborne FTS Spectrometer Normal operation Observe sun near sunset (or sunrise) Photoguided autogain solar tracker (~10”) Average about 1 min. observations Bandpass filter SNR a few hundred (detector dependent) Usually in shot noise regime
Challenges Low signals Observing time Guiding Windows and observing port Will probably be operating in background noise limited regime