Prof. Patrick Irwin

Abstract:

This paper explores the concept of utilizing a long duration stratospheric airship as an astronomical observatory in the sub-millimetre wavelengths. In the first section of the paper, a conceptual description of the airship platform is presented along with the principles of operation of the platform. The results of a computer design code and trajectory simulation code are presented. These codes show that through the use of a modest power and propulsion system, the difficulty of constructing such a such a platform is greatly reduced. Finally, the results of a brief study into the accommodation and optical performance of a Ø3.5m class telescope and photometric and spectrographic instrument similar to the Herschel/SPIRE system within such an airship are presented. This study indicates that while the atmospheric absorption and emission characteristics impose some limitations on the spectrographic and photometric performance of the system in the 200μm to 1000μm band, the overall performance is more than adequate to render the concept viable and complementary to existing and planned ground, airborne and space based observatories.

Abstract:

The Galileo Near Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (NIMS) has returned many spectra of the Jovian atmosphere in the range 0.7-5.2 mum. Although communications restrictions have limited the data return, several wide-area maps have been recorded at near full NIMS resolution. Using these data it is possible to determine both the average shape of the near-infrared (NIR) spectra with very thick clouds (and zero 5-mum brightness) and how these spectra vary as the 5-mum brightness increases.In most of the cases studied, we find that the variable part of the reflectivity has a very different shape to the mean part and may best be explained by variable reflectivity in the cloud layers at pressures greater than 1 bar. In these cases it would thus appear that a variable opacity in a cloud deck based between 1 and 2 bars is mainly responsible for the NIR albedo variations, and not a higher ammonia cloud based above 1 bar as has often been previously suggested. While the composition of this main variable cloud deck could well be ammonium hydrosulphide, other candidates include ammonia (should the much higher estimate of its deep gaseous fractional abundance resulting from the Galileo probe mission be correct), and perhaps even the upper reaches of a deeper water cloud. (C) 2002 COSPAR. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.