Astrophysics and Remote Sensing Science
The Remote Sensing Department of The Aerospace Corporation's Space Science Applications Laboratory is concerned with all aspects of passive imagery and spectroscopy of natural and artificial sources, primarily in the infrared. We are heavily involved in the analysis of both present and future IR detection systems for astronomy and the U.S. government, and the analysis of data from these systems as well. We maintain a modeling and analysis facility for understanding and predicting emissions from spacedust and plasmas, atmospheric constituents and rocket exhaust products. At the center of this work is our in-house suite of state-of-the-art IR cameras and spectrographs that we have built for field and laboratory measurements.
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T+1 sec photograph of a 4-kiloton conventional explosive at the Permanent High Expolsive Test Site operated by The Defense Nuclear Agency at White Sands Missile Range. Using BASS, we obtained a time series of spectra of the dust cloud and its optical properties. This allowed us to remotely and passively identify the components of the dust. See Lynch, D.K., Mark A. Chatelain, Theo K. Tessensohn, Paul M. Adams, "Remote Identification of in Situ Atmospheric Silicate and Carbonate Dust by Passive Infrared Spectroscopy "IEEE Trans Geo. Sci & Rem. Sens., 35 (May) 670-674 (1997) |
Sources (sponsors) recently observed sources include cirrus clouds (NOAA), explosions ( DOD ), comets, young stars ( NASA ), active galactic nuclei, novae and supernovae from NASA's Infrared Telescope Facility at Mauna Kea and the University of California's Lick Observatory , IR calibration stars from the Mt. Lemmon Observing Facility (USAF), Leonid Meteors from the USAF's Flying Infrared Signatures Test Aircraft (FISTA), star formation regions from NASA's Kuiper Airborne Observatory and galactic structure using the Midcourse Space Experiment (MSX) satellite (BMDO). We have also obtained laboratory spectra of rocket full-combustion products in an attempt to evaluate the effects of afterburning on stratospheric pollutants.
