Paper
18 November 1998 Spaceborne infrared interferometer of the IASI instrument
Francois Henault, Christian Buil, Benoit Chidaine, Denis Scheidel
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Abstract
Within the IASI (Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer) instrument, the principal function of the Interferometer and Hot Optics Subassembly (IHOS) is to create modulated interferograms which will be recorded by the Cold Box Subsystem. The IHOS is a spaceborne Fourier Transform Spectrometer (FTS) working in the 3.6 - 15.5 micrometer wavelength range. It is basically a Michelson interferometer where the flat mirrors are replaced with hollow corner-cubes retro-reflectors, one of which is moving along the optical axis in order to create a variable Optical Path Difference (OPD). The IHOS is mainly composed of the following components mounted on the same optical bench: (1) The Michelson interferometer, including the beamsplitter and the fixed and moving hollow cube-corners. (2) The cube-corner driving mechanism. (3) The entrance and exit optics. In addition, a reference interferogram is created by means of a reference laser source in order to generate a pulsed electrical signal defining the interferogram sampling times. The laser module consists in a highly stable laser source (10-7) and its control loop electronics, and is deported from the optical bench by means of an optical fiber. The most critical requirements of the IASI interferometer are the lateral shifts of the moving cube-corner (seen through the beamsplitter), the misalignment of its scanning axis, and the reference laser alignment error. These contributions must not exceed 15 micrometer, 200 (mu) rad and 300 (mu) rad respectively during the five years mission in orbit.
© (1998) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Francois Henault, Christian Buil, Benoit Chidaine, and Denis Scheidel "Spaceborne infrared interferometer of the IASI instrument", Proc. SPIE 3437, Infrared Spaceborne Remote Sensing VI, (18 November 1998); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.331302
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Cited by 6 scholarly publications.
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KEYWORDS
Interferometers

Beam splitters

Mirrors

Optical benches

Laser sources

Electronics

Fourier transforms

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