A new Shortwave Spectrometer for SGP
| Pommier, John | NASA Ames Research Center |
| Pilewskie, Peter | University of Colorado |
| Gore, Warren | NASA Ames Research Center |
A new Shortwave Spectrometer (SWS) will be deployed at the Southern Great Plains Central Facility to measure zenith solar spectral radiance. The SWS is comprised of two Zeiss miniature monolithic spectrometers (MMS-1 and MMS-NIR) for visible and near-infrared detection in the wavelength range between 350 and 2250 nm. Spectral resolution is 8 nm for the MMS-1 and 12 nm for the MMS-NIR. The light collector is a narrow field of view (±1.5 º) collimator at the front end of a high-grade custom-made fiber optic bundle. The data acquisition and control system is a 933 MHz Pentium based PC in a PC104 format with a USB interface between the computer and the spectrometers. Spectral sampling rate is approximately 1 Hz.
A prototype SWS was deployed at SGP in November and December 2004 and it collected zenith-sky solar spectra at 1 Hz continuously over a 29 day period. Prior to deployment it was calibrated and characterized at the NASA Ames Airborne Sensor Facility (ASF) using a 30 inch Integrating Sphere. The SWS was also calibrated using a portable 12 inch integrating sphere at the Central Facility. In this paper we will show the results of our testing and calibration procedures along with sample field spectra acquired during the fall deployment. We will discuss the plan and schedule for permanent installation of SWS as well as data availability. Finally, we will outline expected science results from the data.
This poster will be displayed at the ARM Science Team Meeting.