JPL accepted delivery of the Atmospheric InfraRed Sounder (AIRS) last Friday from Lockheed Martin IR Imaging Systems (LMIRIS), following eight years of development by LMIRIS to design and produce a key facility instrument for NASA's Earth Observing System (EOS PM) satellite.
AIRS program manager Jerry Bates said of the May 28 acceptance ceremony, "The LMIRIS team has built the most sophisticated atmospheric sounding instrument in the world today, and we look forward to its launch on EOS PM." That launch, which will put into orbit a global observation system to obtain comprehensive long-term measurements of earth processes affecting global change, is scheduled to occur in December 2000.
The Atmospheric InfraRed Sounder is one of six major instruments on the satellite. The AIRS program will provide U.S. scientists with new and extremely accurate data about the atmosphere, land and oceans for application in climate studies and weather prediction. AIRS is designed to continuously measure more than 2,000 separate spectral bands. It will carry out its passive remote sensing measurements using a high resolution grating spectrometer to precisely sample the Earth's atmosphere in the infrared spectral region from 3.74 to 15.4 microns.
"For the first time," Bates said, "NASA will be able to measure the Earth's atmospheric temperature to within one Kelvin per kilometer of altitude. That degree of accuracy will give scientists radiosonde equivalent data over the entire earth and permit more accurate weather forecasts to be made over seven to ten days rather than just over three to five days."
Lockheed Martin IR Imaging Systems, part of the Lockheed Martin Aerospace Electronics Systems, has a long and successful heritage as an advanced infrared systems and components supplier to the U.S. Government, the commercial marketplace and to international clients. It is a major producer of state of the art electro-optical space sensors, advanced missile seekers, threat warning systems, infrared linescanners and uncooled microbolometer-based sensors. Complementing its systems core business, it is an established supplier of mercury cadmium telluride and indium antimonide infrared focal plane arrays and integrated dewar/cooler assemblies for both the U.S. Government and industry customers.
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