Abstract

The Atmospheric Trace Molecule Spectroscopy (ATMOS) experiment is an investigation of the distribution of neutral constituents in the earth’s atmosphere. The ATMOS instrument is a Michelson interferometer, with a response to radiation in the near- to mid-infrared, designed to make observations from on board the space shuttle in the solar occultation mode.¹,² Its first flight was made as part of the Spacelab 3 (SL-3) payload which flew on the shuttle "Challenger" between April 29 and May 6, 1989. The ATMOS experiment gathered data during 20 occultation events; 13 sunset occultations located between 26° - 34°N latitudes and 7 sunsets around 48°S.¹,² The data returned was composed of over 1000 high resolution infrared spectra containing absorption features of the earth’s atmosphere, spanning tangent heights from the ground up to 150 km, and a like number of high sun reference spectra. The spectra obtained within each occultation have been analyzed for the concentration height profiles of more than 25 different atmospheric species, including the first detection and confirmation of the presence of several gases.

© 1990 Optical Society of America