The MicroMAPS Project: A NASA - Virginia Space Grant Consortium Initiative

The MicroMAPS instrument is a nadir-viewing, gas filter correlation radiometer that operates in the 4.67-micrometer band of carbon monoxide. MicroMAPS was designed at North Carolina State University and built at Resonance Ltd in Canada for flight on the NASA-Clark spacecraft, under the Small Spacecraft Technology Initiative. Because of spacecraft-related delays, the Clark mission was cancelled in February 1998. The instrument was removed from the spacecraft in August 2000 and placed in storage at NASA Langley Research Center until the initiation of the current MicroMAPS project in 2002. The primary goal of the MicroMAPS mission is to examine the chemical and transport processes in the lower atmosphere. The scientific objectives are to 1) demonstrate the reliability and accuracy of the two-layer profiles and total column amounts of CO in the troposphere; 2) provide additional CO measurements and profiles to investigators who develop combined chemistry-transport models, data assimilation models, and other regional- to global-scale atmospheric models; and 3) complement the measurement matrix of space-based CO sensors such as MOPITT on the Terra and TES on the AURA spacecrafts. Test flights of the MicroMAPS CO remote sensor on the Proteus 281 aircraft (owned by Scaled Composites, Inc.) will enable the development and testing of data retrieval algorithms for this instrument, and the verification of these remote CO measurements through comparisons with CO profiles that are measured directly. The aerospace engineering student team from Virginia Polytechnic Institute completed the instrument system and the enclosure design in May 2002. The new composite enclosure replaces the nose of the starboard tail boom during MicroMAPS flights. The instrument system consists of MicroMAPS, an optical window, a data acquisition computer, environmental sensors, and a power inverter. The integrated instrument system, after testing at NASA Langley is completed, will be shipped to Scaled Composites, Inc. in Mojave, CA, to be integrated, calibrated, and flown on a series of test flights. These initial data sets will be used to test the prototype retrieval algorithms under development by the engineering student team at the University of Virginia. The MicroMAPS instrument system will fly on-board Proteus, as a non-interfering payload in collaboration with other integrated payloads.