The Far-Infrared Spectroscopy of the Troposphere Instrument: Description, Performance, and Results
Abstract
The Far-Infrared Spectroscopy of the Troposphere (FIRST) instrument successfully completed its technology demonstration flight on June 7 2005 on a high altitude balloon launched from Ft. Sumner, N. M. FIRST is a Fourier Transform Spectrometer (FTS) designed to measure the "far-infrared" portion of the emission from the Earth and its atmosphere at wavelengths longer than 15 um. Developed under NASA's Instrument Incubator Program (IIP) FIRST demonstrated the interferometer, beamsplitter, and focal plane technology necessary to make daily global measurements of the far-infrared in a space-like environment. The FIRST instrument operated from a float altitude of 27 km for over five hours and recorded about 15,000 spectra. The instrument exceeded design specifications and observed essentially the entire infrared spectrum between 6 and 120 um. The AQUA satellite flew directly over FIRST, offering a unique opportunity for validation of the FIRST measurements. We will discuss the science motivating the measurement of the far-infrared, the instrument design and performance, comparisons with AQUA, and the future of far-infrared measurements.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2005
- Bibcode:
- 2005AGUFMIN13B1084M
- Keywords:
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- 1616 Climate variability (1635;
- 3305;
- 3309;
- 4215;
- 4513);
- 1640 Remote sensing (1855);
- 1694 Instruments and techniques;
- 3359 Radiative processes;
- 3360 Remote sensing