A ROCKET INSTRUMENT FOR THE MEASUREMENT OF DAY AIRGLOW,

Abstract

Description is given of the design and construction of a rocket borne instrument for the measurement of day airglow emissions. Design criteria included greater sensitivity, background discrimination, in-flight spectral calibration and increased spectral information. A scanning photometer was designed utilizing matched interference filter pairs mounted in a rotating turret and displaced approximately 5 degrees to one another. Two matched parallel light beams produced by a beam splitter are passed through the matched interference filter pair. The resulting scans are displaced in the spectrum by 10A and provide output signals from closely adjacent spectral regions. Measuring the difference in the two signals provides emission line information and discriminates against background. The sum of the signals provides the background information. Polarizing effects corrected by use of polaroid filters at the input aperture resulted in an overall reduction in sensitivity of the instrument. (Author)

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Feb 28, 1967
Accession Number
AD0654693

Entities

People

  • Alan D. Bailey
  • Richard E. Grojean

Organizations

  • Northeastern University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Calibration
  • Construction
  • Design Criteria
  • Discrimination
  • Emission
  • Measurement
  • Measuring Instruments
  • Photometers
  • Scanning
  • Sensitivity
  • Spectra

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Astronomy and Astrophysics.
  • Optical Physics and Photonics.
  • Radar Systems Engineering.