Rugged optical mirrors for Fourier transform spectrometers operated in harsh environments

Feist, Dietrich G.; Arnold, Sabrina G.; Hase, Frank; Ponge, Dirk

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-2381-2016

Articles | Volume 9, issue 5

https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-2381-2016

© Author(s) 2016. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-2381-2016

© Author(s) 2016. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 9, issue 5

Research article

|

31 May 2016

Research article |

| 31 May 2016

Rugged optical mirrors for Fourier transform spectrometers operated in harsh environments

Dietrich G. Feist, Sabrina G. Arnold, Frank Hase, and Dirk Ponge

Data sets

TCCON data from Ascension Island, Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, Release GGG2014R0. TCCON data archive, hosted by the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, U.S.A. Feist, D. G., S. G. Arnold, N. John, M. C. Geibel https://doi.org/10.14291/tccon.ggg2014.ascension01.R0/1149285

The HITRAN2012 molecular spectroscopic database L. Rothman, I. Gordon, Y. Babikov, A. Barbe, D. C. Benner, P. Bernath, M. Birk, L. Bizzocchi, V. Boudon, L. Brown, A. Campargue, K. Chance, E. Cohen, L. Coudert, V. Devi, B. Drouin, A. Fayt, J.-M. Flaud, R. Gamache, J. Harrison, J.-M. Hartmann, C. Hill, J. Hodges, D. Jacquemart, A. Jolly, J. Lamouroux, R. L. Roy, G. Li, D. Long, O. Lyulin, C. Mackie, S. Massie, S. Mikhailenko, H. Müller, O. Naumenko, A. Nikitin, J. Orphal, V. Perevalov, A. Perrin, E. Polovtseva, C. Richard, M. Smith, E. Starikova, K. Sung, S. Tashkun, J. Tennyson, G. Toon, V. Tyuterev, and G. Wagner https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jqsrt.2013.07.002

Refractive index database M. N. Polyanskiy http://refractiveindex.info

Short summary

Optical equipment is usually not made for harsh environments. At our atmospheric observation site on Ascension Island, commercially available optical mirrors were destroyed within weeks after being installed outside. To be able to continue our observations, we had to develop rugged optical mirrors that are able to sustain sea salt spray, volcanic dust, and regular cleaning without loosing their reflectivity and without adverse effects on the retrieval quality.