HR: 1340h
AN: SF43A-0782    [Abstracts]
TI: FIRST - The Far-Infrared Spectroscopy of the Troposphere Project
AU: Kratz, D P
EM: d.p.kratz@larc.nasa.gov
AF: NASA Langley Research Center, 21 Langley Boulevard, Hampton, VA 23681 United States
AU: * Mlynczak, M G
EM: m.g.mlynczak@nasa.gov
AF: NASA Langley Research Center, 21 Langley Boulevard, Hampton, VA 23681 United States
AU: Johnson, D G
EM: d.g.johnson@larc.nasa.gov
AF: NASA Langley Research Center, 21 Langley Boulevard, Hampton, VA 23681 United States
AU: Bingham, G P
EM: gail.bingham@sdl.usu.edu
AF: Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 United States
AU: Traub, W A
EM: wtraub@cfa.harvard.edu
AF: Space Dynamics Laboratory, 1695 North Research Parkway, Logan, UT 84341 United States
AU: Jucks, K
EM: kjucks@cfa.harvard.edu
AF: Space Dynamics Laboratory, 1695 North Research Parkway, Logan, UT 84341 United States
AU: Hyde, C R
EM: c.r.hyde@larc.nasa.gov
AF: NASA Langley Research Center, 21 Langley Boulevard, Hampton, VA 23681 United States
AU: Wellard, S
EM: stan.wellard@sdl.usu.edu
AF: Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 United States
AB: FIRST, The Far-Infrared Spectroscopy of the Troposphere project is being developed under NASA's Instrument Incubator Program (IIP). The far-infrared encompasses the relatively unobserved portion of the Earth's emission spectrum between 15 and 100 micrometers in wavelength that controls much of the natural greenhouse effect, water vapor feedback, and cirrus radiative forcing. The objective of FIRST is to develop and demonstrate in a space-like environment the technology necessary to measure the far-infrared portion of the Earth's emission spectrum from an orbiting satellite daily and globally. To achieve this, FIRST is developing a high throughput Fourier Transform Spectrometer and broad bandpass beamsplitters. The FIRST instrument is now built and is undergoing radiometric calibration and characterization in thermal vacuum chambers at the Space Dynamics Laboratory in Logan, Utah. We will present an overview of the science afforded by far-infrared observations, a description of the FIRST instrument, and preliminary results from the FIRST radiometric testing program. The FIRST instrument and associated technologies will be demonstrated in a space-like environment from a high-altitude balloon platform in Spring, 2005, from Ft. Sumner, New Mexico.
DE: 6919 Electro-optics
DE: 6924 Interferometry
DE: 6969 Remote sensing
DE: 6982 Tomography and imaging
DE: 6994 Instruments and techniques
SC: Special Focus: Advances in Data Acquisition, Management, Analysis and Display [SF]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting