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Two-octave imaging spectrometer utilizes light of two harmonically related wavelengths diffracted to harmonically related orders at same angles, followed by separation via dichroic beam splitter before final imaging. Conceptual design of spectrometer calls for minimum number of optical elements to achieve coverage of required visible and near-infrared wavelengths in instrument of reduced size, weight, and cost.
The present invention relates to a dispersive spectrometer. The spectrometer allows detection of multiple orders of light on a single focal plane array by splitting the orders spatially using a dichroic assembly. A conventional dispersion mechanism such as a defraction grating disperses the light spectrally. As a result, multiple wavelength orders can be imaged on a single focal plane array of limited spectral extent, doubling (or more) the number of spectral channels as compared to a conventional spectrometer. In addition, this is achieved in a common path device.
A pinned photodiode/interline CCD Detector Array is under development for the EOS/MODIS-T project. Outstanding features of the device include large pixels, spectrally optimized fill factors, and blooming protection. The detector has 30 spatial rows and 32 spectral columns. The device layout is split into two halves; each half has its own detector area, storage area, and output structure.
A focal plane scanner having a front objective lens, a spatial window for selectively passing a portion of the image therethrough, and a CCD array for receiving the passed portion of the image. All embodiments have a common feature whereby the spatial window and CCD array are mounted for simultaneous relative reciprocating movement with respect to the front objective lens, and the spatial window is mounted within the focal plane of the front objective. In a first embodiment, the spatial window is a slit and the CCD array is one-dimensional, and successive rows of the image in the focal plane of the front objective lens are passed to the CCD array by an image relay lens interposed between the slit and the CCD array. In a second embodiment, the spatial window is a slit, the CCD array is two-dimensional, and a prism-grating-prism optical spectrometer is interposed between the slit and the CCD array so as to cause the scanned row to be split into a plurality of spectral separations onto the CCD array. In a third embodiment, the CCD array is two-dimensional and the spatial window is a rectangular linear variable filter (LVF) window, so as to cause the scanned rows impinging on the LVF to be bandpass filtered into spectral components onto the CCD array through an image relay lens interposed between the LVF and the CCD array.
Earth’s ionosphere responds dynamically over a wide range of temporal and spatial scales to changes in the magnetosphere and solar wind from above, and to neutral atmospheric dynamics from below. Determining the dynamics and coupling of Earth's magnetosphere, ionosphere, and atmosphere by vector magnetic field measurements at all altitudes is essential, as the field plays a major role in controlling the distribution of ionospheric plasma. It is difficult to measure the magnetic B-field, either locally or globally, at the altitudes of the upper mesosphere and lower thermosphere (UMLT) where the transfer of energy and momentum between the plasma and neutral components of the system occur. The 118-GHz imaging magnetometer will measure all four Stokes parameters as a function of frequency about the Zeeman-split center of the 118-GHz molecular oxygen line. We are developing an array of fully-polarimetric millimeterwave radiometer/spectrometers operating near 118 GHz. These low cost, low power, low mass polarimetric 118 GHz millimeter-wave array receivers do not require cooling to meet the sensitivity requirements. With digital spectrometers we will be able to integrate the complete end-to-end system. This work will enable a second generation small satellite mission with an off-nadir viewing instrument comprised of 120 such receivers (arranged so that each spot on the Earth is observed simultaneously by four receivers each) that will globally map the magnetic field in the mesosphere at 42-76 km altitude at a horizontal resolution ~100 km with 1-sigma error of 40-120 nT, in typical mesospheric temperature conditions.
Howardite, eucrite and diogenite meteorites likely come from asteroid 4 Vesta [1]. Howardites - physical mixtures of eucrites and diogenites - are of two subtypes: regolithic howardites were gardened in the true regolith; fragmental howardites are simple polymict breccias [2]. The Dawn spacecraft imaged the howarditic surface of Vesta with the visible and infrared mapping spectrometer (VIR) resulting in qualitative maps of the distributions of distinct diogenite-rich and eucrite-rich terranes [3, 4]. We are developing a robust basis for quantitative mapping of the distribution of lithologic types using spectra acquired on splits of well-characterized howardites [5, 6]. Spectra were measured on sample powders sieved to <75 μm in the laboratories of the Istituto di Astrofisica e Planetologia Spaziali and Brown University. Data reduction was done using the methods developed to process Dawn VIR spectra [4]. The band parameters for the ~1 and ~2 μm pyroxene absorption features (hereafter BI and BII) can be directly compared to Dawn VIR results. Regolithic howardites have shallower BI and BII absorptions compared to fragmental howardites with similar compositions. However, there are statistically significant correlations between Al or Ca contents and BI or BII center wavelengths regardless of howardite subtype. Diogenites are poor in Al and Ca while eucrites are rich in these elements. The laboratory spectra can thus be directly correlated with the percentage of eucrite material contained in the howardites. We are using these correlations to quantitatively map Al and Ca distributions, and thus the percentage of eucritic material, in the current regolith of Vesta.
The multispectral scanner system installed in the NASA C-130 aircraft for use in the Earth Observations Aircraft Program constitutes a 24-channel imaging spectrometer that senses electromagnetic energy in the spectral interval from .34 to 13 microns. Energy reflected or emitted from the terrain and system calibration sources is collected by a scan mirror, reflected into collecting optics, and brought to a focus in a plane containing a 0.09 inch square aperture. A dichroic optical element splits the energy which passes through the aperture into two wavelength bands (wavelengths above and below 2 microns). These wavelength bands are then dispersed spectrally into 24 distinct spectral bands by two grating spectrometers. The spectral intervals are transformed into electrical signals by separate detector-preamplifier combinations, and the signals are used as inputs to a video processor in an airborne electronics console. System operation and performance are described.
Contents include the following: A Model for Multiple Populations of Presolar Diamonds. Characterization of Martian North Polar Geologic Units Using Mars Odyssey THEMIS Data. Effect of Flow on the Internal Structure of the Martian North Polar Layered Deposits. Elemental Abundance Distributions in Basalt Clays and Meteorites: Is It a Biosignature? Early Results on the Saturn System from the Composite Infrared Spectrometer. NanoSIMS D/H Imaging of Isotopically Primitive Interplanetary Dust Particles. Presolar (Circumstellar and Interstellar) Phases in Renazzo: The Effects of Parent Body Processing. Catastrophic Disruption of Hydrated Targets: Implications for the Hydrated Asteroids and for the Production of Interplanetary Dust Particles. Chemical and Mineralogical Analyses of Particles from the Stratospheric Collections Coinciding with the 2002 Leonid Storm and the 2003 Comet Grigg-Skjellerup Trail Passage. An Analysis of the Solvus in the CaS-MnS System. ESA s SMART-1 Mission at the Moon: First Results, Status and Next Steps. Europa Analog Ice-splitting Measurements and Experiments with Ice-Hunveyor on the Frozen Balaton-Lake, Hungary. Chromium on Eros: Further Evidence of Ordinary Chondrite Composition. Dust Devil Tracks on Mars: Observation and Analysis from Orbit and the Surface. Spatial Variation of Methane and Other Trace Gases Detected on Mars: Interpretation with a General Circulation Model. Mars Water Ice and Carbon Dioxide Seasonal Polar Caps: GCM Modeling and Comparison with Mars Express Omega Observations. Component Separation of OMEGA Spectra with ICA. Clathrate Formation in the Near-Surface Environment of Titan. Space Weathering: A Proposed Laboratory Approach to Explaining the Sulfur Depletion on Eros. Sample Collection from Small Airless Bodies: Examination of Temperature Constraints for the TGIP. Sample Collector for the Hera Near-Earth Asteroid Sample Return Mission. A Rugged Miniature Mass-Spectrometer for Measuring Aqueous Geochemistry on Mars. Martian and Lunar Pyroxene Microstructures Studied by Single-Crystal X-Ray Diffraction.
We present the design and performance of a Concurrent Artificially-intelligent Spectrometry and Adaptive Lidar System (CASALS) for 3D imaging from Space. With a single fast wavelength tuning laser, CASALS accomplishes a 1,200 resolvable spots swath mapping by grating dispersion wavelength steering. Any subset of these 1,200 spots can be selected by wavelength switching. The validation operating principle was accomplished and reported in IGASS-2022. With configurable base design, we report the designs and progress of the CASALS airplane campaign with 256 contiguous ground spots. It is accomplished with a single fast tuning lase at 1040-nm, 1.152MHz tuning rate, and pulse modulated 2-ns on each wavelength. Return pulses are mapped to an eight-pixel detector array with single-photon sensitivity. The lidar returns are time-multiplexed to two outputs that are digitized with two 1-GSPS-digitizer. A grating spectrometer rejects solar background noise spatially and spectrally. We are developing a 1040-nm CASALS intended for multiple LEO orbit missions: Earth Venture Mission on ESPA Grande, STV Mission on ESPA Grande SmallSat, STV Mission on spacecraft equivalent to ICESat power (SWaP,) and splitting the laser beam requires higher laser pulse energy.
The Mars Surveyor missions that will be launched in April of 2001 will include a highly capable rover that is a successor to the Mars Pathfinder mission's Sojourner rover. The design goals for this rover are a total traverse distance of at least 10 km and a total lifetime of at least one Earth year. The rover's job will be to explore a site in Mars' ancient terrain, searching for materials likely to preserve a record of ancient martian water, climate, and possibly biology. The rover will collect rock and soil samples, and will store them for return to Earth by a subsequent Mars Surveyor mission in 2005. The Athena Mars rover science payload is the suite of scientific instruments and sample collection tools that will be used to perform this job. The specific science objectives that NASA has identified for the '01 rover payload are to: (1) Provide color stereo imaging of martian surface environments, and remotely-sensed point discrimination of mineralogical composition. (2) Determine the elemental and mineralogical composition of martian surface materials. (3) Determine the fine-scale textural properties of these materials. (4) Collect and store samples. The Athena payload has been designed to meet these objectives. The focus of the design is on field operations: making sure the rover can locate, characterize, and collect scientifically important samples in a dusty, dirty, real-world environment. The topography, morphology, and mineralogy of the scene around the rover will be revealed by Pancam/Mini-TES, an integrated imager and IR spectrometer. Pancam views the surface around the rover in stereo and color. It uses two high-resolution cameras that are identical in most respects to the rover's navigation cameras. The detectors are low-power, low-mass active pixel sensors with on-chip 12-bit analog-to-digital conversion. Filters provide 8-12 color spectral bandpasses over the spectral region from 0.4 to 1.1 micron Narrow-angle optics provide an angular resolution of 0.28 mrad/pixel, nearly a factor of four higher than that of the Mars Pathfinder and Mars Surveyor '98 cameras. Image compression will be performed using a wavelet compression algorithm. The Mini-Thermal Emission Spectrometer (Mini-TES) is a point spectrometer operating in -the thermal IR. It produces high spectral resolution (5 /cm) image cubes with a wavelength range of 5-40 gm, a nominal signal/noise ratio of 500:1, and a maximum angular resolution of 7 mrad (7 cm at a distance of 10 in). The wavelength region over which it operates samples the diagnostic fundamental absorption features of rockforming minerals, and also provides some capability to see through dust coatings that could tend to obscure spectral features. The mineralogical information that Mini-TES provides will be used to select from a distance the rocks and soils that will be investigated in more detail and ultimately sampled. Mini-TES is derived from the MO/MGS TES instrument, but is significantly smaller and simpler. The instrument uses an 8-cm Cassegrain telescope, a Michelson interferometer, and uncooled pyroelectric detectors. Along with its mineralogical capabilities, Mini-TES can provide information on the thermophysical properties of rocks and soils. Viewing upward, it can also provide temperature profiles through the martian atmospheric boundary layer. Elemental and Mineralogical Composition: Once promising samples have been identified from a distance using Pancam/Mini-TES, they will be studied in detail using up to three compositional sensors that can be placed directly against them by an Instrument Arm. The two compositional sensors, presently on the payload are an Alpha-Proton-X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS), and a Mossbauer Spectrometer. The APXS is derived closely from the instrument that flew on Mars Pathfinder. Radioactive alpha sources and three detection modes (alpha, proton, and x-ray) provide elemental abundances of rocks and soils to complement and constrain mineralogical data. The Athena APXS will have a revised mechanical design that will cut down significantly on backscattering of alpha particles from martian atmospheric carbon. It will also include a target of known elemental composition that will be used for calibration purposes. The Athena Mossbauer Spectrometer is a diagnostic instrument for the mineralogy and oxidation state of Fe-bearing phases, which are particularly important on Mars. The instrument measures the resonant absorption of gamma rays produced by a Co-57 source to determine splitting of nuclear energy levels in Fe atoms that is related to the electronic environment surrounding them. It has been under development for space flight for many years at the Technical University of Darmstadt. The Mossbauer Spectrometer (and the other arm instruments) will be able to view a small permanent magnet array that will attract magnetic particles in the martian soil. The payload may also include a Raman Spectrometer. If included, the Raman Spectrometer will provide precise identification of major and minor mineral phases. It requires no sample preparation, and is also sensitive to organics. Fine-Scale Texture: The Instrument Arm a also carries a Microscopic Imager that will obtain high-resolution monochromatic images of the same materials for which compositional data will be obtained. Its spatial resolution is 20 micron/pixel over a 1 cm depth of field, and 40 micron/pixel over a 1-cm depth of field. Like Pancam, it uses the same active pixel sensor detectors and electronics as the rover's navigation cameras. The Instrument Arm is a three degree-of-freedom arm that uses designs and components from the Mars Pathfinder and Mars Surveyor '98 projects. Its primary function is instrument positioning. Along with the instruments noted above, it also carries a brush that can be used to remove dust and other loose coatings from rocks. Sample Collection and Storage: Martian rock and soil samples will be collected using a low-power rotary coring drill called the Mini-Corer. An important characteristic of this device is that it can obtain intact samples of rock from up to 5 cm within strong boulders and bedrock, Nominal core dimensions are 8xl7 mm. The Mini-Corer drills a core to the commanded depth in a rock, shears it off, retains it, and extracts it. It can also acquire samples of loose soil, using soil sample cups that are pressed downward into loose material. The Mini-Corer can drill at angles from vertical to 45' off vertical. It has six interchangeable bits for long life. Mechanical damage to the sample during drilling is minimal, and heating is negligible. After acquisition, the sample may be viewed by the arm instruments, and/or placed in one of 104 compartments in the Sample Container. A subset of the acquired samples may be replaced with other samples obtained later if desired. The Sample Container has no moving parts, and is mounted external to the rover for easy removal by the Mars Surveyor 2005 flight system. Operation of the rover will make extensive use of automated onboard navigation and hazard avoidance capabilities. Otherwise, use of onboard autonomy is minimal. Data downlink capability is about 40 Mbit/sol, and the use of the Mars Surveyor '01 orbiter for data relay imposes a limit of at most two command cycles per sol. Because of the significant amount of time available between command cycles, all payload elements will be operated sequentially, rather than in parallel.; this approach also significantly simplifies operations and minimizes peak power usage. The landing site for the '01 rover has not been selected yet. Site selection will make as full use as possible of Mars Global Surveyor data, and will involve substantial input from the broad Mars science community. Summary: The following table describes the mass, power, providers, and key scientific objectives of all the major elements of the Athena payload. Additional Athena payload information may be found at: http://astrosun.tn.cornell.edu/athena/index.html. Additional information contained in the original.
This paper describes the design and performance of a scientific CCD array for use in NASA's Shuttle Image Spectrometer Experiment. The device is a four-phase, buried-channel CCD structure that operates in the frame-transfer mode. The sensor consists of 64 x 404 pixels, has a 100 percent fill factor, and operates in the visible and near-infrared spectral regions. In operation, the 404 horizontal elements provide spatial information, while the 64 vertical elements give spectral information covering the wavelength range of 400 to 1000 nm in 10 nm increments. The high full-well capacity of each pixel and low noise floor yield a dynamic range of more than 95 dB. In addition, the device has been designed to have good linearity characteristics. The unique dual-output structure allows a horizontal row to be read out to the right or to the left, or it can be split from the middle to both right and left output circuits simultaneously for high speed applications. The power dissipation of the device is about 60 mW.
This study compares cirrus particle effective radius retrieved by a CALIPSO-like method with two similar methods using MODIS, MODI Airborne Simulator (MAS), and GOES imagery. The CALIPSO-like method uses lidar measurements coupled with the split-window technique that uses the infrared spectral information contained at the 8.65-micrometer, 11.15-micrometer and 12.05-micrometer bands to infer the microphysical properties of cirrus clouds. The two other methods, sing passive remote sensing at visible and infrared wavelengths, are the operational MODIS cloud products (referred to by its archival product identifier MOD06 for MODIS Terra) and MODIS retrievals performed by the CERES team at LaRC (Langley Research Center) in support of CERES algorithms; the two algorithms will be referred to as MOD06- and LaRC-method, respectively. The three techniques are compared at two different latitudes: (i) the mid-latitude ice clouds study uses 18 days of observations at the Palaiseau ground-based site in France (SIRTA: Site Instrumental de Recherche par Teledetection Atmospherique) including a ground-based 532 nm lidar and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) overpasses on the Terra Platform, (ii) the tropical ice clouds study uses 14 different flight legs of observations collected in Florida, during the intensive field experiment CRYSTAL-FACE (Cirrus Regional Study of Tropical Anvils and cirrus Layers-Florida Area Cirrus Experiment), including the airborne Cloud Physics Lidar (CPL) and the MAS. The comparison of the three methods gives consistent results for the particle effective radius and the optical thickness, but discrepancies in cloud detection and altitudes. The study confirms the value of an active remote-sensing method (CALIPSO-like) for the study of sub-visible ice clouds, in both mid-latitudes and tropics. Nevertheless, this method is not reliable in optically very thick tropical ice clouds.