Understanding Atmospheric Absorption Effects on UV Spectra from Sounding Rockets using a Spherical-Shells Model

Our team is working on building and calibrating the FURST sounding rocket, with an expected launch in mid-2023. The goal is to image the most complete and highest resolution UV spectra to date. To do this, preciseradiometric and wavelength calibration techniques have been developed. We describe below our model of O2 atmospheric absorption and couple that with simulated FURST images. With a high-enough SNR, we canestimate our ability to use absorption peaks for calibration, or for back-calculating atmospheric properties. If data is available, this method could be applied to older sounding rocket data to find hidden science.