Abstract

Bomem is currently integrating ARIES (Airborne Radiometer Interferometer Evaluation System), a Fourier transform (FT) interferometer to be installed in a pod of the UK Meteorological Office Hercules C-130 aircraft. This new infrared (IR) instrument has numerous science goals. First it will provide invaluable data to help refine IR radiative transfer models such as FASCODE. It will also help characterize the emissivity and the surface temperature of sea and ground under various conditions (snow, ice, etc.). The IR spectral signature holds a wealth of information so that other physical properties of the atmosphere such as clouds and aerosol effect can also be studied. Retrieval of total column amount of some of the atmosphere minor constituents will be possible as well. Data from the ARIES instrument is also foreseen to be used to support the development of advanced atmospheric sounders such as IASI (IR Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer, a Franco-Italian project) and AIRS (Advanced IR Sounder, a NASA project).

© 1995 Optical Society of America