AAS 199th meeting, Washington, DC, January 2002
Session 102. Instrumentation for the Optical and Infrared
Display, Wednesday, January 9, 2002, 9:20am-6:30pm, Exhibit Hall

[Previous] | [Session 102] | [Next]


[102.15] The Infrared Cloud Imager (IRCI)

D.I. Klebe (The Colorado College), National Space Science and Technology (NSSTI) Research and Development Team

Operations and performance specifications of the National Space Science and Technology’s (NSSTI) newly developed Infrared Cloud Imager (IRCI) are presented. This instrument, which utilizes a mid-infrared (8 – 13 micron) 320x240 uncooled microbolometer array, has been successfully demonstrated to delineate clouds for the number one purpose of improving astronomical observational efficiency. IRCI attains infrared images of the sky over a 150-degree cone angle (i.e. down to 15 degrees above the horizon) at a 5 Hz frame rate. By coadding frames, this instrument is capable of detecting thin cirrus clouds. Images are displayed in terms of the fractional radiance that would be achieved by an ambient temperature blackbody of emissivity equal to one. Data can be utilized to determine atmospheric transmission in the mid-infrared spectral interval on approximately one-by-one degree spatial scales.


If you would like more information about this abstract, please follow the link to http://www.nssti.org. This link was provided by the author. When you follow it, you will leave the Web site for this meeting; to return, you should use the Back comand on your browser.

The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: dklebe@coloradocollege.edu

[Previous] | [Session 102] | [Next]