Airborne interferometer for atmospheric emission and solar absorption

• DOI: 10.1364/ao.40.005463
• Publication Date: 2007-08-16T16:48:39Z
• Authors: David W. Keith; John A. Dykema; Haijun Hu; Larry Lapson; James G. Anderson
• Keywords: 13. Climate action; 01 natural sciences; 7. Clean energy; 0105 earth and related environmental sciences

The interferometer for emission and solar absorption (INTESA) is an infrared spectrometer designed to study radiative transfer in the troposphere and lower stratosphere from a NASA ER-2 aircraft. The Fourier-transform spectrometer (FTS) operates from 0.7 to 50 mum with a resolution of 0.7 cm(-1). The FTS observes atmospheric thermal emission from multiple angles above and below the aircraft. A heliostat permits measurement of solar absorption spectra. INTESA's calibration system includes three blackbodies to permit in-flight assessment of radiometric error. Results suggest that the in-flight radiometric accuracy is ~0.5 K in the mid-infrared.