A thermal emission spectrometer for field use

A field portable spectrometer has been built at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory which is suitable for collecting data relevant to remote sensing applications in the 4.7- to 5.6- and 8- to 12-micrometer atmospheric windows. The instrument employs a single cooled HgCdTe detector and a continuously variable filter wheel analyzer. The spectral range covered is 5- to 14.5-micrometers and the resolution is approximately 1.5 percent of the wavelength. A description of the hardware is followed by a discussion of the data processing steps leading to emissivity and radiance spectra. A section is devoted to the evaluation of the instrument performance with respect to spectral resolution, radiometric precision, and accuracy. Several examples of spectra acquired in the field are included.