Balloon experiments spectrometers

Table I, provided yet another instrumental approach for balloon experiments intended to measure the extinction of solar radiation by stratospheric aerosol. Spectrometer 4, Table I, based on the use of a pyroelectric vidicon image device, was developed to measure the strong absorption bands of non-isonuclear molecules ( 2-5 ym range). Recently we have developed spectrometer 5, Table I, based on the use of a self-scanned solid state pyroelectric array sensor. The main advantages of this sensor, over the pyroelectric vidicon, are its improved sensitivity and reduced channel-to-channel cross-talk.

List of the spectrometers developed by the authors for rocket, balloon, and satellite experiments. 

The solar spectrum has been the subject of numerous rocket experiments undertaken since the 1940s. The first spectrum measured above the ozone layer by a V-2 rocket dates from October 1946 (Baum et al, 1946), and not until the 1950s was a solar spectrum observed from an altitude of 100 km (Johnson et al, 1952). Today the solar irradiance is routinely observed by spectrometers on board balloons, aircraft, or spacecraft. During the 1990s, for example, the solar UY flux was measured almost continuously between 120 and 400 nm by the Solar Ultraviolet Spectral Irradiance Monitor (SUSIM) and the Solar/Stellar Irradiance Comparison Experiment (SOLSTICE), both on board the... 

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