Techniques for the measurements of the line of sight velocity of high altitude Barium clouds

Abstract

It is demonstrated that for maximizing the scientific output of future ion cloud release experiments a new type of instrument is required which will measure the line of sight velocity of the ion cloud by the Doppler Technique. A simple instrument was constructed using a 5 cm diameter solid Fabry-Perot etalon coupled to a low light level integrating television camera. It was demonstrated that the system has both the sensitivity and spectral resolution for the detection of ion clouds and the measurement of their line of sight Doppler velocity. The tests consisted of (1) a field experiment using a rocket barium cloud release to check the sensitivity, (2) laboratory experiments to show the spectral resolving capabilities of the system. The instrument was found to be operational if the source was brighter than about 1 kilorayleigh and it had a wavelength resolution much better than .2A which corresponds to about 12 km/sec or an acceleration potential of 100 volts