CIRS-lite, a Fourier Transform Spectrometer for Low-Cost Planetary Missions

Passive spectroscopic remote sensing of planetary atmospheres and surfaces in the thermal infrared is a powerful tool for obtaining information about surface and atmospheric temperatures, composition, and dynamics (via the thermal wind equation). Due to its broad spectral coverage, the Fourier transform spectrometer (FTS) is particularly suited to the exploration and discovery of molecular species. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) developed the CIRS (Composite Infrared Spectrometer) FTS for the NASA/ESA Cassini mission to the Saturnian system. CIRS observes Saturn, Titan, icy moons such as Enceladus, and the rings in thermal self-emission over the spectral range of 7 to 1000 ell11. CIRS has given us important new insights into stratospheric composition and jets on Jupiter and Saturn, the cryo-geyser and thermal stripes on Enceladus, and the winter polar vortex on Titan. CIRS has a mass of 43 kg, contrasted with the earlier GSFC FTS, pre-Voyager IRIS (14 kg). Future low-cost planetary missions will have very tight constraints on science payload mass, thus we must endeavor to return to IRIS-level mass while maintaining CIRS-level science capabilities ("do more with less"). CIRS-lite achieves this by pursuing: a) more sensitive infrared detectors (high Tc superconductor) to enable smaller optics. b) changed long wavelength limit from 1000 to 300 microns to reduce diffraction by smaller optics. c) CVD (chemical vapor deposition) diamond beam-splitter for broad spectral coverage. d) single FTS architecture instead of a dual FTS architecture. e) novel materials, such as single crystal silicon for the input telescope primary

Limb Sounding of the Lunar Limb with a Fourier Transform Spectrometer

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Hyphenation of a carbon analyzer to photo-ionization mass spectrometry to unravel the organic composition of particulate matter on a molecular level.

The carbonaceous fraction of airborne particulate matter (PM) is of increasing interest due to the adverse health effects they are linked to. Its analytical ascertainment on a molecular level is still challenging. Hence, analysis of carbonaceous fractions is often carried out by determining bulk parameters such as the overall content of organic compounds (OC) and elemental carbon (EC) as well as the total carbon content, TC (sum of OC and EC), however, no information about the individual substances or substance classes, of which the single fractions consist can be obtained. In this work, a carbon analyzer and a photo-ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometer (PI-TOF-MS) were hyphenated to investigate individual compounds especially from the OC fractions. The carbon analyzer enables the stepwise heating of particle samples and provides the bulk parameters. With the PI-TOF-MS, it is possible to detect the organic compounds released during the single-temperature steps due to soft ionization and fast detection of the molecular ions. The hyphenation was designed, built up, characterized by standard substances, and applied to several kinds of samples, such as ambient aerosol, gasoline, and diesel emission as well as wood combustion emission samples. The ambient filter sample showed a strong impact of wood combustion markers. This was revealed by comparison to the product pattern of the similar analysis of pure cellulose and lignin and the wood combustion PM. At higher temperatures (450 °C), a shift to smaller molecules occurred due to the thermal decomposition of larger structures of oligomeric or polymeric nature comparable to lignocelluloses and similar oxygenated humic-like substances. Finally, particulate matter from gasoline and diesel containing 10% biodiesel vehicle exhaust has been analyzed. Gasoline-derived PM exhibited large polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, whereas diesel PM showed a much higher total organic content. The detected pattern revealed a strong influence of the biodiesel content on the nature of the particulate organic material

The Geoscience Laser Altimeter System Laser Transmitter

The Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS), scheduled to launch in 2001, is a laser altimeter and lidar for tile Earth Observing System's (EOS) ICESat mission. The laser transmitter requirements, design and qualification test results for this space- based remote sensing instrument are presented

Hyphenation of a EC / OC Thermal-Optical Carbon Analyzer to Photo Ionization Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry: A New Off-Line Aerosol Mass Spectrometric Approach for Characterization of Primary and Secondary Particulate Matter

Source apportionment and characterization of primary and secondary aerosols remains a challenging research field. In particular, the organic composition of primary particles and the formation mechanism of secondary organic aerosols (SOAs) warrant further investigations. Progress in this field is strongly connected to the development of novel analytical techniques. In this study an off-line aerosol mass spectrometric technique based on filter samples, a hyphenated thermal–optical analyzer photo-ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometer (PI-TOFMS) system, was developed. The approach extends the capability of the widely used particulate matter (PM) carbon analysis (for elemental / organic carbon, EC / OC) by enabling the investigation of evolved gaseous species with soft and selective (resonance enhanced multi-photon ionization, REMPI) and non-selective photo-ionization (single-photon ionization, SPI) techniques. SPI was tuned to be medium soft to achieve comparability with results obtained by the electron ionization aerosol mass spectrometer (AMS). Different PM samples including wood combustion emission samples, smog chamber samples from the reaction of ozone with different SOA precursors, and ambient samples taken at Ispra, Italy, in winter as well as in summer were tested. The EC / OC–PI-TOFMS technique increases the understanding of the processes during thermal–optical analysis and identifies marker substances for the source apportionment. Composition of oligomeric or polymeric species present in PM can be investigated by the analysis of the thermal breakdown products. In the case of wood combustion, in addition to the well-known markers at m/z ratios of 60 and 73, two new characteristic masses (m/z 70 and 98) have been revealed as potentially linked to biomass burning. All four masses were also the dominant signals in an ambient sample taken in winter time in Ispra, Italy, confirming the finding that wood burning for residential heating is a major source of PM in winter at this location. The summer sample from the same location showed no influence of wood burning, but seems to be dominated by SOAs, which was confirmed from the comparison with chamber experiment samples. The experiments conducted with terpenes as precursors showed characteristic masses at m/z 58 and 82, which were not observable in any other emission samples and could serve as a marker for SOA from terpenes