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FTUVS instrument at Table Mountain Facility

FTUVS instrument at Table Mountain Facility Project Logo

The depletion of stratospheric ozone and the changes in the global climate system are examples of environmental problems that have the potential to affect the Earth's habitability for generations. In order to understand how these changes will affect the coupled atmosphere-ocean-land systems, NASA has built a series of research and monitoring systems that use satellites, aircraft, balloons and ground-based instruments. At Table Mountain Facility (TMF) our group has built two spectrometers for the remote measurement of atmospheric composition:Fourier Transform Ultraviolet Spectrometer (FTUVS) is a high resolution interferometric spectrometer for the measurement of atmospheric molecules with resolved spectral features in the 290-800 nm spectral region. This instrument uses the Sun or Moon as a light source, and measures the absorption spectra of molecules such as OH (hydroxyl), NO2 (nitrogen dioxide), NO3 (nitrate radical) and BrO (bromine monoxide) to obtain vertical column abundances.Grating Spectograph is a medium resolution grating spectrometer which employs a 1024 element diode array detector. This instrument can be used in the solar/lunar absorption modes, and also in a sky-viewing mode to detect light that has been scattered by high-altitude air molecules. This instrument is used for measurements of NO3 (nitrate radical), NO2 (nitrogen dioxide), O3 (ozone) and other molecules.

People

Photo of Thomas Pongetti
Thomas Pongetti
Laboratory Studies And Atmospheric Observations
Photo of Stanley Sander
Stanley Sander
Science Division - Senior Research Scientist