Wideband Filter Spectrophotometer for Mesospheric and Thermospheric Studies

Abstract

The effect of small scale features, such as gravity waves, on the mesosphere and lower thermosphere is a subject of much current interest. One way to study these phenomenon is to monitor their effects on the airglow emissions originating in the region. Band emissions, such as the OH Meinel and O2 Atmospheric bands are particularly useful. Instrumentally these are difficult to study because of their wide spectral nature and low intensity. Often, it is necessary to infer the properties of an entire band from the observations of a few lines with either a filter photometer or a Fabry-Perot interferometer (Meriwether, 1975). Another approach has been to scan a band with a grating spectrometer, a process that is often slow compared to many of the temporal features of interest (Myrabo and Deehr, 1984).