Michigan Aerospace Corporation has teamed with the John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
for the design and fabrication of the prototype instrument for the GIFS (Geostationary Imaging Fabry-Perot Spectrometer)
program. Under this effort, MAC designed and fabricated a passive triple-etalon interferometer that was flight-tested
aboard a P-3 Orion aircraft as a precursor to the spaceflight instrument.
Operating at the 14,502.8219 cm-1 and 14,504.7954 cm-1 lines, this instrument consists of three tunable Fabry-Perot etalons
aligned in series and spectrally scanned across a CCD image plane, producing a spatially-coherent spectral image of
backscattered solar radiation from cloud and ground features. The instrument enables measurements of cloud top
temperature, pressure and altitude on a global scale, when deployed in geostationary orbit. Introduction of these dat
points into weather forecasting models will lead to significant improvements in the forecasting of weather events,
including hurricane motion and intensity. The GIFS instrument successfully flew and operated on-board a NASA P-3 Orion
in multiple flights throughout January and February 2008.
Completed flight hardware undergoing testing |
Rendering of the hardware without the outer enclosure |
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