The Infrared Spectral Imaging Radiometer and Laser Altimeter on STS-85 (an Aircraft Style Experiment Flown in Space)

Improvements in the remote sensing of clouds from space in the future will come from instruments with higher spatial and spectral resolution on more platforms and supported by active sounding. The space shuttle hitchhiker system allows new measurements to be prototyped in space with costs, operating flexibility and data volumes similar to aircraft experiments. The Infrared Spectral Imaging Radiometer and Shuttle Laser Altimeter hitchhiker experiment was flown in 1997. The experiment tested the use of uncooled thermal infrared imaging, laser cloud altitude measurements and high spatial resolution, tri-spectral sensing of cloud particle size and phase. A 1/4 km resolution, fifty orbit data set was obtained from STS-85. The presentation will focus on the use of the shuttle as an experiment platform and cover possible transition to the space station in the future.