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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2026

CHESS 2025: Spectrometer orthorectified at-sensor radiance from NEON AOP imaging spectroscopy surveys

This dataset provides Level 1 (L1) orthorectified at-sensor radiance derived from measurements collected by the Imaging Spectrometer-1 (NIS-1) onboard the NEON (National Ecological Observatory Network) Airborne Observation Platform (AOP) for the 2025 Colorado Headwaters Ecological Spectroscopy Study (CHESS). NIS-1 captures light reflected from the Earth’s surface in 426 discrete wavelength bands as raw digital numbers (DNs; Level 0). These data are then calibrated to physical units (uW/cm²·sr·nm) following the processing steps described in the NEON Imaging Spectrometer Level 1B Calibrated Radiance Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document (ATBD; Gallery 2022). The data delivered here are the primary inputs for the surface reflectance product in “Custom surface reflectance, shade masks, and equivalent water thickness maps for the Colorado Headwaters Ecological Spectroscopy Study” (Carroll et al. 2026). For intertemporal comparison, the radiance data here are most directly relatable to the v2 radiance data in “NEON AOP Imaging Spectroscopy Survey of Upper East River Colorado Watersheds: Raw-Space Radiance and Observational Variable Dataset” (Goulden et al. 2018), to which the same processing methodology was applied. Together, the radiance and reflectance data enable users to exploit the unique reflection signatures of different surface objects for land cover classification, foliar trait mapping, plant vigor assessment, water content estimation, trace-element identification, and other scientific applications. The data were acquired over three study domains in the Upper Gunnison river basin: the upper East River watershed (CRBU); Almont Triangle and Taylor Canyon (ALMO); and Upper Taylor River watershed (UPTA) between 2025-06-13 and 2025-07-15. Within each domain, data are delivered by flightline as orthorectified and calibrated hyperspectral rasters in Hierarchical Data Format version 5 (HDF5) format, with radiance values provided in uW/cm²·sr·nm on a fixed, uniform Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) grid at 1 meter spatial resolution. The radiance rasters include all 426 NIS-1 spectral bands, along with associated quality-assurance (QA) and diagnostic and ancillary layers needed for atmospheric correction workflows. Orthorectified radiance is produced from pushbroom spectrometer observations by applying NEON’s radiometric calibration (including bad pixel masking, dark subtract, dark pedestal shift correction, electronic panel ghost correction, grating ghost correction, deblur correction and flat-fielding) and spectral calibration (using spectral response function band centers and full-width at half-maximum intensity), followed by geolocation and regridding to the fixed grid. CHESS Project Description: The Colorado Headwaters Ecological Spectroscopy Study (CHESS) comprised a multi-week airborne remote sensing and field observation campaign in the Upper Gunnison Basin, Colorado, conducted in June and July of 2025. Airborne remote sensing was conducted by the National Ecological Observatory Network Airborne Observation Platform (NEON AOP), concurrent with a field campaign run by the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory (RMBL), the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory Watershed Function Science Focus Area (SFA), and NASA-JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (EMIT) program. Between June 10 and July 18, 2025, the NEON AOP flight team collected high-resolution aerial imaging spectroscopy and Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data over three domains: the Upper East River (CRBU), Almont Triangle (ALMO), and the Upper Taylor Basin (UPTA). In coordination with the flights, a field campaign acquired ground-truth observations, including observations of vegetation composition, foliar traits, forest demography, and subsurface properties in 18 core sampling areas within the domains. Additional surface water observations were taken at over 380 point locations. All CHESS campaign datasets can be found within the CHESS ESS-DIVE data portal: https://data.ess-dive.lbl.gov/portals/chess. Funding Acknowledgement: Field and remote-sensing data acquisition was performed under a grant from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (80NSSC24K1005). This work was also supported by the Watershed Function Science Focus Area at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory funded by the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Biological and Environmental Research under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231.

2018 NEON and 2025 CHESS Campaigns↗
DOE OSTI2012

Simulations and Analysis of an Infrared Prism Spectrometer for Ultra-short Bunch Length Diagnostics at the Linac Coherent Light Source

We require a means of determining the minimum achievable bunch length at the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. Current methods of measurement in the time domain do not have the resolution to measure ultra-short bunch lengths below 10 fs. An alternative method has been designed, using a single-shot near- to mid-infrared prism spectrometer for bunch length diagnosis in the frequency domain. This design requires the precision alignment of sensitive optical equipment and complete understanding of the spectrum reaching the spectrometer's detector surface. This paper provides information on preliminary simulations designed to model beam behavior in the optical set-up and at the detector surface for comparison to measured values as an indication of the current achievable optical alignment and the study of optimal detector orientation. The results of these simulations indicate the necessity for a method of greater precision in optical alignment and further study of achievable spectrometer range!

OTHER↗
DOE OSTI2016

Observations and Modeling of the Green Ocean Amazon 2014/15: Hydroxyl Radical (OH) Chemical Ionization Mass Spectrometer (CIMS) Field Campaign Report

The University of California, Irvine, science team (Dr. Saewung Kim, Dr. Roger Seco, Dr. Alex Guenther, and Dr. Jim Smith) deployed a chemical ionization mass spectrometer system for hydroxyl radical (OH) and sulfuric acid quantifications. As part of the GoAmazon 2014/15 field campaign. Hydroxyl radical determines tropospheric oxidation capacity and had been expected to be very low in the pristine rain forest region such as the Brazilian Amazon because of the presence of significant levels of highly reactive biogenic volatile organic compounds and very low levels of NO, which is an OH recycling agent. However, several recent in situ OH observations provided by a laser-induced fluorescence system reported unaccountably high OH concentrations. To address this discrepancy, a series of laboratory and theoretical studies has postulated chemical reaction mechanisms of isoprene that may regenerate OH in photo-oxidation processes. Along with these efforts, potential artifacts on the laser induced fluorescence system from isoprene and its oxidation products also have been explored. Therefore, the first chemical ionization mass spectrometer observations at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Climate Research Facility’s T3 site in Manacapuru, Brazil, are expected to provide a critical experimental constraint to address uncertainty in constraining oxidation capacity over pristine rain forest environments. In addition, we deployed a National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) proton transfer reaction time-of-flight mass spectrometer to characterize atmospheric volatile organic compound levels, especially isoprene and its oxidation products, which are critical input parameters for box modeling to simulate OH with different isoprene photo-oxidation schemes. As there has been no report on noticeable new particle formation events, our first in situ sulfuric acid observations in the Amazon rain forest were expected to constrain the reasons behind such observations. The planned field observations during Intensive Observational Periods I and II, post-field campaign calibrations, and preliminary data reports have been completed. We presented preliminary data analysis results at the 2014 American Geophysical Union Fall meeting and the GOAmazon Science Meeting in Boston (May 2015). We are in the process of submitting two more abstracts to the 2015 American Geophysical Union fall meeting while we are preparing two manuscripts to be submitted to (tentatively) the GOAmazon special issue of Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2017

Soft X-ray spectrometer design for warm dense plasma measurements on DARHT Axis-I

A preliminary design study is being performed on a soft X-ray spectrometer to measure K-shell spectra emitted by a warm dense plasma generated on Axis-I of the Dual-Axis Radiographic Hydrodynamic Testing (DARHT) facility at Los Alamos National Laboratory. The 100-ns-long intense, relativistic electron pulse with a beam current of 1.7 kA and energy of 19.8 MeV deposits energy into a thin metal foil heating it to a warm dense plasma. The collisional ionization of the target by the electron beam produces an anisotropic angular distribution of K-shell radiation and a continuum of both scattered electrons and Bremsstrahlung up to the beam energy of 19.8 MeV. The principal goal of this project is to characterize these angular distributions to determine the optimal location to deploy the soft X-ray spectrometer. In addition, a proof-of-principle design will be presented. The ultimate goal of the spectrometer is to obtain measurements of the plasma temperature and density to benchmark equation-of-state models of the warm dense matter regime.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2018

Hyperspectral Raman imaging using a spatial heterodyne spectrometer (SHS)

Savannah River National Laboratory, and the larger community, has limited chemical-specific imaging capabilities, which would be beneficial for remote detection of threat chemicals or use in inaccessible and harsh environments, as well as in-line process monitoring. Chemical imaging technology would support multiple directorates through stand-off detection of chemicals (National Security), and imaging of chemical distributions in a process (Nuclear Materials Management, Clean Energy) and in waste tanks (Environmental Stewardship). Chemical-specific imaging is underdeveloped due to issues of sensitivity, stable alignment and calibration, and ease of operation associated with most optical instruments. The project objective is to develop a novel, rugged, highly sensitive spectrometer to support real-time, chemically specific imaging using hyperspectral Raman spectroscopy. Raman spectroscopic analysis will provide chemical specificity and using a spatial heterodyne spectrometer (SHS) will increase the sensitivity due to the high light throughput design. The SHS design does not require moving parts allowing for a very stable system, reducing alignment and calibration issues. The instrument will be assembled and initially applied to Raman gas detection of the Saltstone disposal unit headspace gas concentrations. Raman gas analysis is the most impacted by sensitivity issues and will be used to demonstrate the increased light collection capability of the SHS over a conventional dispersive spectrometer. The system will be later modified to image spectral information in a spatial domain to provide information on the spatial distribution of a sample scene.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2019

High Momentum Transfer Nucleon Elastic Electromagnetic Form Factor Measurements Using Super BigBite Spectrometer at Jefferson Lab

The nucleons - protons and neutrons - are the basic building blocks of atomic nuclei. We now know that the nucleon consists of fundamental particles called quarks and gluons. The quarks interact with each other by exchanging gluons via the strong interaction. Understanding the quark-gluon structure of the nucleon, especially the confinement of quarks within the nucleon in its ground state, remains one of the main unsolved puzzles of particle physics. The nucleon electromagnetic form factors are directly related to the internal structure of the nucleon. A new generation of high precision experiments, GEp-V, GEn-II, GEn-RP, and GMn, measuring the ground state nucleon space-like electro-magnetic form factor at high momentum transfer is underway at Jefferson Lab experimental Hall-A as part of the Super Bigbite Spectrometer (SBS) program. This series of experiments will provide a new level of understanding of the nucleon structure. These experiments are highly demanding due to the extremely fast drop off of the elastic cross section with the increasing four-momentum transfer squared(Q2). This thesis provides an overview of the SBS physics program and reports on the extensive R&D program carried out to achieve the high rate running conditions essential for carrying out the SBS experiments. SBS will provide an intermediate solid angle of approximately 35 msr, which is significantly larger than the solid angle of other dipole based spectrometers at Jefferson lab. Of course, there are much larger acceptance spectrometers at Jefferson Lab, CLAS12 for example. What is special about SBS is that it provides a sizable acceptance while operating at the highest possible luminosity at Jefferson Lab. With this combination of medium acceptance and the highest available luminosity, SBS provides an unparalleled opportunity to explore the nucleon in its ground state with unprecedented resolution. The relatively large acceptance of SBS is achieved by using a large gap dipole magnet and placing it close to the target. An unavoidable consequence of this is that the SBS GEM trackers and other detectors have a clear line-of-sight view of the target and a portion of the beam-line. As a result, the background hit rate in the SBS front GEM trackers is expected to be up to 500 kHz/cm2, over the entire active area of 6000 cm2. To the best of our knowledge, this extremely high rate over such a large area is unprecedented in any particle tracking system used anywhere in the world before. Correctly reconstructing the particle tracks of interest in this very high background environment is achieved by using especially adapted high rate techniques at every step of the tracking process: optimizing the GEM module and tracker design at the hardware level, using high bandwidth electronics and real time Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) based background suppression techniques at the Data Acquisition (DAQ) level, and developing highly specialized tracking algorithms to pick out the signal hits from among the vast amount of background hits. In order to ensure a smooth start and running of the SBS experiments, it is extremely crucial that these techniques are developed, implemented, and tested under realistic conditions well before the actual start of the SBS experimental program. A detailed Geant4 simulation of the experiment was combined with a digitization package to generate the detector level pseudodata similar to what is expected in the actual experiments. The digitization procedures were calibrated against actual GEM data from cosmic-ray runs, X-ray tests, beam test runs in experimental Hall-A, and the PRad experiment in Hall B. Then, optimized tracking algorithms were developed and implemented in an analysis program used to analyze these pseudo-data and to extract expected high-level parameters. These extracted quantities were then compared with the input parameters from the simulation to verify and determine the performance characteristics for the SBS tracker. From this work, a final tracking efficiency of 69% at 25% occupancy was achieved, with the required reconstruction accuracy, for the GMn experiment, the first experiment in the SBS program, with background level at 100 kHz/cm2. These demonstrated parameters are adequate for the successful running of not only the GMn experiment but as well as for GEn-RP and GEn-II experiments, the second and third experiments in the program. This work builds the solid ground to further improve the tracking performance for these experiments and achieve similar conditions for the running of the GEp-V experiment, the most demanding experiment in the SBS program, with an expected background level at 500 kHz/cm2.

Di, Danning↗
DOE OSTI2024

Artifacts in the Aerosol Size Distribution Measured by the Ultra-High-Sensitivity Aerosol Spectrometer (UHSAS)

The ultra-high-sensitivity aerosol spectrometer (UHSAS) (Droplet Measurement Technologies, Longmont, Colorado) is an optical particle size spectrometer that determines aerosol size distributions in the diameter range from 60 to 1000 nm in 100 logarithmically spaced diameter bins1 by measuring the amount of light scattered by individual aerosol particles from a 1054-nm laser. Recently, it was noticed that aerosol size distributions determined by the UHSAS from all U.S. Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility sites exhibited modes at diameters greater than ~500 nm (Figure 1, blue arrows). These modes were not present in size distributions determined by another aerosol spectrometer that was co-located with the UHSAS, the Grimm 11D optical particle counter (OPC) (GRIMM Aerosol Technik Ainring GmbH & Co. KG, Germany), which sizes particles into 31 linearly spaced diameters bins from 253 to 35,150 nm using a 683-nm wavelength laser. Additionally, abrupt changes in aerosol particle number concentration with changing particle diameter are seen in UHSAS data at several diameters (Figure 1, red arrows). The purpose of this report is to explain the origin of the modes and the abrupt changes in aerosol size distributions observed by the UHSAS and why they are absent in the data from the Grimm OPC.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2026

Adapting High-Resolution X-Ray Microcalorimeter Spectrometers to Transform MFE Plasma Diagnostics

The aim of this project was to begin the transformation of magnetic fusion energy (MFE) X-ray diagnostics by applying detector technology developed over the past several decades by the astrophysics community. We installed and operated an X-ray microcalorimeter detector system under fusion-relevant plasma conditions at the Madison Symmetric Torus (MST). X-ray microcalorimeter spectrometers combine the best characteristics of instrumentation currently available on fusion devices: the high spectral resolution of crystal spectrometers (2 eV) and broadband coverage provided by pulse-height analysis systems. These spectrometers have small port-access requirements, a key advantage for future MFE experiments. This new plasma diagnostic technique will satisfy the need for multispecies impurity ion data by providing absolute measurements of impurity core accumulation, and it will provide the core impurity ion temperature. This project was a joint effort between Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and researchers at the Wisconsin Plasma Physics Laboratory (WiPPl) at the University of Wisconsin–Madison (UW–Madison). Megan E. Eckart is the principal investigator at LLNL, which is funded separately from UW–Madison. This final report fulfills the reporting obligation of the UW–Madison effort.

Den Hartog, Daniel J. [Department of Physics, Univ↗
DOE OSTI2016

Assessment of errors and biases in retrievals of XCO2, XCH4, XCO, and XN2O from a 0.5 cm–1 resolution solar-viewing spectrometer

Abstract. Bruker™ EM27/SUN instruments are commercial mobile solar-viewing near-IR spectrometers. They show promise for expanding the global density of atmospheric column measurements of greenhouse gases and are being marketed for such applications. They have been shown to measure the same variations of atmospheric gases within a day as the high-resolution spectrometers of the Total Carbon Column Observing Network (TCCON). However, there is little known about the long-term precision and uncertainty budgets of EM27/SUN measurements. In this study, which includes a comparison of 186 measurement days spanning 11 months, we note that atmospheric variations of Xgas within a single day are well captured by these low-resolution instruments, but over several months, the measurements drift noticeably. We present comparisons between EM27/SUN instruments and the TCCON using GGG as the retrieval algorithm. In addition, we perform several tests to evaluate the robustness of the performance and determine the largest sources of errors from these spectrometers. We include comparisons of XCO2, XCH4, XCO, and XN2O. Specifically we note EM27/SUN biases for January 2015 of 0.03, 0.75, –0.12, and 2.43 % for XCO2, XCH4, XCO, and XN2O respectively, with 1σ running precisions of 0.08 and 0.06 % for XCO2 and XCH4 from measurements in Pasadena. We also identify significant error caused by nonlinear sensitivity when using an extended spectral range detector used to measure CO and N2O.

Hedelius, Jacob K. (ORCID:0000000320257519)↗
DOE OSTI2025

A New Measurement of the Neutron Electric Form Factor with the Super Bigbite Spectrometer Apparatus

Protons and neutrons, collectively known as nucleons, make up the nuclei at the core of atoms which form our world. The nucleon has been under intensive study for over 100 years, and yet we still do not fully understand the internal dynamics which govern properties like its spin or its mass-which contributes to almost all of the visible mass in the universe. These dynamics are governed by quantum chromodynamics(QCD), the predictions of which are experimentally tested at high energy accelerator facilities such as Jefferson Lab. TheGEN-II experiment (E12-09-016) is one such experiment. GEN-II is part of the Super Bigbite Spectrometer (SBS) experimental form factor pro gramme taking place in Hall A at Jefferson Lab, which aims to make precision measurements of the nucleon electromagnetic form factors(EMFFs)at record high values of squared four momentum transfer ¿2. EMFFs describe the electric and magnetic moment distributions within the nucleon. They can be measured through elastic electron scattering off the nucleon, and describe the recoil response of the target nucleon at a given energy scale. GEN-II is a double polarized semi-exclusive beam target asymmetry (BTA) experiment, seeking to measure the electric form factor of the neutron,¿¿ ¿,at three new values of squared four-momentum transfer¿2 =2.92,6.74and9.82GeV². The latter two points being at record high ¿2. The form factor is determined through measuring the BTA of quasielliptical scattering of a neutron from a polarized nuclear target. The experiment utilized the CEBAF accelerator to produce longitudinally polarized electrons up to ~85% polarization, which were scattered off neutrons within a novel polarized helium-3 (³He) target. This new polarized ³He target was employed by building on the technology of its precursors which existed in similar preceding experiments. This target was designed to operate at the high luminosities typical of Hall A, and reached a record breaking combination of polarization and beam intensity known as figure of merit, three times larger than those predecessors. The SBS collaboration designed and constructed two brand new high acceptance spectrometers for these experiments, an electron arm named Bigbite (BB) and a hadron arm named Super Bigbite. Both spectrometers featured a large acceptance EM dipole magnet, and complementary detector systems. The electron arm contained gaseous electronmultipliers(GEMs) which were used for high precision tracking of the scattered electrons, a heavy gas cherenkov (GRINCH) which was used for PID between electrons and pions, a plastic i ii scintillator timing hodoscope to provide high resolution timing of the start of events, and a pair of EM calorimeters (BBCal) which provided energy measurements of detected particles, and provided the experimental trigger. The hadron arm also contained a system of GEMs which will be utilized for future SBS experiments, and a hadron calorimeter designed to provide position, timing and energy measurements of the recoiling nucleon. The calibration of all detector subsystems, beam and target data is discussed, with a focus on novel timing calibrations to the hodoscope and hadron calorimeter. An analysis of selecting quasielliptical events and suppressing background contributions from a number of sources which contaminate the final event sample is given. The largest irreducible backgrounds are found to be from misidentified protons, timing accidentals and inelastic events. The physical asymmetry is measured and used to extract a value for the form factor ratio ¿¿ ¿/¿¿ ¿. High precision ¿2 data for ¿¿ ¿ is used to then extract ¿¿ ¿. This work finds at ¿2 = 2.92 GeV2 that ¿¿ ¿ = 0.0129+0.0019 -0.0020. This result is in statistical agreement with existing fits to world data, and predictions from the constituent quark model and Dyson–Schwinger equations, in this region of ¿2.

Penman, Gary [Univ. of Glasgow, Scotland (United K↗
NASA NTRS1971

A thermosphere composition measurement using a quadrupole mass spectrometer with a side energy focussing quasi-open ion source

The atomic oxygen concentration in the altitude range 130 to 240 km was determined through the use of a quadrupole spectrometer with a strongly focussing ion source. The instrument is used in the Thermosphere Probe in a manner that greatly increases the proportion of measured oxygen ions that have not experienced a surface collision and permits quantitative evaluation of surface recombination and thermalization effects which inevitably enter all spectrometer determinations. The data obtained strengthen the concept that consideration of surface effects is significant in quantifying spectrometer measurements of reactive gases, and tend to be in agreement with von Zahn's recent results.

Niemann, H. B.↗
NASA NTRS1971

Comparison of the energy response of an ionization spectrometer for pions and protons

An ionization spectrometer consisting of a sandwich of iron absorbers and plastic scintillation counters was used to measure the energy of pions and protons in the interval 10 to 1000 GeV. For the limited energy interval of 10 to 40 GeV, pions and protons were identified by an air cerenkov counter. Interactions in carbon were studied in a multiplate cloud chamber placed between the cerenkov counter and the spectrometer. Knowledge of these interactions were used in conjunction with a Monte Carlo simulation of the cascade process to study differences in the response of the spectrometer to pions and protons.

Jones, W. V.↗
NASA NTRS1973

Electron-proton spectrometer

An electron-proton spectrometer was designed to measure the geomagnetically trapped radiation in a geostationary orbit at 6.6 earth radii in the outer radiation belt. This instrument is to be flown on the Applications Technology Satellite-F (ATS-F). The electron-proton spectrometer consists of two permanent magnet surface barrier detector arrays and associated electronics capable of selecting and detecting electrons in three energy ranges: (1) 30-50 keV, (2) 150-200 keV, and (3) 500 keV and protons in three energy ranges. The electron-proton spectrometer has the capability of measuring the fluxes of electrons and protons in various directions with respect to the magnetic field lines running through the satellite. One magnet detector array system is implemented to scan between EME north and south through west, sampling the directional flux in 15 steps. The other magnet-detector array system is fixed looking toward EME east.

Winckler, J. R.↗
NASA NTRS1973

Compton scatter attenuation gamma ray spectrometer

A gamma ray spectrometer is described for use in intense radiation fields such as those in the vicinity of a rocket engine exhaust. A collimated radiation beam is Compton scattered toward shielded spectrometers to reduce the energy and intensity of the radiation and is energy selective among the spectrometers. The scattering targets are changeable to control the percentage of the radiation scattered. Sum-Compton coincidence techniques are employed for data selection.

Austin, W. E.↗
NASA NTRS1973

The photoelectron-spectrometer experiment on Atmosphere Explorer.

The Atmosphere Explorer (AE) photoelectron spectrometer experiment consists of electrostatic deflection-type electron spectrometers designed to measure the low-energy electron flux expected to be encountered along the AE orbit. The system has been designed to provide general information on the intensity, angular distribution, energy spectrum, and net flows along field lines as well as sufficient energy resolution to allow the fine details of the electron-energy spectrum to be studied. The instrumentation consists of two separate electron-spectrometer detector heads connected to a common electronics system for data processing and telemetry interfacing. The experiment will measure the electron-energy spectrum from 2 to 500 eV (and possibly to less than 0.1 eV).

Doering, J. P.↗
NASA NTRS1974

Fast scan control for deflection type mass spectrometers

A high speed scan device is reported that allows most any scanning sector mass spectrometer to measure preselected gases at a very high sampling rate. The device generates a rapidly changing staircase output which is applied to the accelerator of the spectrometer and it also generates defocusing pulses that are applied to one of the deflecting plates of the spectrometer which when shorted to ground deflects the ion beam away from the collector. A defocusing pulse occurs each time there is a change in the staircase output.

Yeager, P. R.↗
NASA NTRS1974

Space and velocity focusing in time-of-flight mass spectrometers

A focusing equation is developed describing the relationship between space and velocity focusing for all one-dimensional time-of-flight mass spectrometers with constant electric fields. As a result of this equation, first-order double time focusing in one dimension is impossible. The possibility of large improvements in the resolving power of the time-of-flight mass spectrometers is discussed on this basis. The focusing equation also leads to an expression for the minimum time resolution obtainable. This second equation is applied to the conventional Wiley and McLaren (1955) two-field time-of-flight mass spectrometer with and without time-lag focusing, and to the mirror instrument of Karataev et al. (1972).

Stein, R.↗
NASA NTRS1975

Infrared Fourier spectrometer for laboratory use and for astronomical studies from aircraft and ground-based telescopes

A portable, versatile, IR Fourier spectrometer is described that provides 0.5 per cm spectral resolution in the 0.87-5.6-micron region. This spectrometer is employed in a varied program of astronomical observations from ground-based telescopes and from the NASA 91.5-cm airborne IR telescope. A number of spectral results are presented to illustrate the performance of this spectrometer in astronomical applications.

Larson, H. P.↗