Measuring the water vapor above the SOFIA Observatory

Thomas L. Roellig; Lunming Yuen; David Sisson; Allan Meyer

doi:10.1117/12.856506

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4 August 2010 Measuring the water vapor above the SOFIA Observatory

Thomas L. Roellig, Lunming Yuen, David Sisson, Allan Meyer

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Proceedings Volume 7733, Ground-based and Airborne Telescopes III; 773339 (2010) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.856506
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2010, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

The SOFIA airborne observatory flies in the lower stratosphere above more than 99.9% of the Earth's water vapor. As low as this residual water vapor is, it will still affect SOFIA's infrared and sub-millimeter astronomical observations. As a result, a heterodyne instrument operating at 183 GHz will be used to measure the integrated water vapor overburden in flight. The accuracy of the measured precipitable water vapor must be 2 microns or better, 3 sigma, and measured at least once a minute. This presentation will cover the design and the measured laboratory performance of this instrument, and will discuss other options for determining the water vapor overburden during the SOFIA Early Science shared-risk period.

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Thomas L. Roellig, Lunming Yuen, David Sisson, and Allan Meyer "Measuring the water vapor above the SOFIA Observatory", Proc. SPIE 7733, Ground-based and Airborne Telescopes III, 773339 (4 August 2010); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.856506

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