Spectrometers
ATMOS
The Atmospheric Trace Molecules Observed by Spectroscopy (ATMOS) experiment was flown four times on the Space Shuttle (on Spacelab 3 and three flights of the Atmospheric Laboratory for Appliactions and Science (ATLAS). The ATMOS experiment objective was to determine concentration profiles for a large number of stratospheric species for altitudes from 20 to 80 km, with a vertical resolution of 2 km. The ATMOS instrument viewed the sun through the stratosphere and measured the spectral absorption of solar energy. Each data-taking run was initiated before the sun emerged from or disappeared behind the earth. Data from the instrument for these sunrise and sunset limb encounters were interferograms that were processed on the ground to provide absorption spectra. The instrument was a continuous-scanning Fourier spectrometer that operated in the 2- to 16-micrometer wavelength region and generated one interferogram each second, with a spectral resolution of 0.01 (1/cm). The ATMOS consisted of four major systems: a suntracker for precise solar pointing, an input optical system that included a telescope and a data handling system, an interferometer for wavelength measurements, and an infrared detector sensitive to radiation in the 3- to 16-micrometer wavelength range. Additional information available at "http://asd-www.larc.nasa.gov/spectroscopy/ASDatmos.html"