Optical Pointing System For Stratospheric Balloon-Borne Multi-Slit OSIRIS-DM

Abstract

The Optical Spectrograph and InfraRed Imaging System (OSIRIS) satellite instrument spearheaded by a team of researchers at the University of Saskatchewan has provided scientists with 13 years of information about the state of the atmosphere. The success of the mission has motivated further development of the technology in a next generation instrument called the Canadian Atmospheric Tomography System (CATS) to provide better spatial and spectral resolution through a successive satellite mission. This work details the development of a proof-of-concept prototype built to test the validity of the CATS optical design. This thesis project utilized the developmental model built for the OSIRIS mission. The major modification made to the instrument replaced the optical element that defines the instrument’s field of view. This new development transformed the original single line of sight utilized by the satellite based OSIRIS instrument into three separate fields of view, which increased the imaging capabilities of the instrument. The new system has improved spatial resolution by collecting spectral information from three separate regions in the atmosphere in a single exposure, as opposed to the single region imaged by the original system. The newly developed prototype was tested on the platform of a stratospheric balloon. This test platform offered the capabilities to make limb scattered measurements similar to those that are made by a satellite based instrument. However, from the balloon geometry, the instrument required an additional pointing system to redirect the line of sight over stratospheric tangent altitudes. The design and test of this pointing system is also detailed in this work.