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- 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"
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