The Spectral and Photometric Imaging REceiver (SPIRE), is the Herschel Space Observatory's submillimetre camera and spectrometer. It contains a three-band imaging photometer operating at 250, 350 and 500 μm, and an imaging Fourier-transform spectrometer (FTS) which covers simultaneously its whole operating range of 194-671 μm (447-1550 GHz). The SPIRE detectors are arrays of feedhorn-coupled bolometers cooled to 0.3 K. The photometer has a field of view of 4 × 8 , observed simultaneously in the three spectral bands. Its main operating mode is scan-mapping, whereby the field of view is scanned across the sky to achieve full spatial sampling and to cover large areas if desired. The spectrometer has an approximately circular field of view with a diameter of 2.6 . The spectral resolution can be adjusted between 1.2 and 25 GHz by changing the stroke length of the FTS scan mirror. Its main operating mode involves a fixed telescope pointing with multiple scans of the FTS mirror to acquire spectral data. For extended source measurements, multiple position offsets are implemented by means of an internal beam steering mirror to achieve the desired spatial sampling and by rastering of the telescope pointing to map areas larger than the field of view. The SPIRE instrument consists of a cold focal plane unit located inside the Herschel cryostat and warm electronics units, located on the spacecraft Service Module, for instrument control and data handling. Science data are transmitted to Earth with no on-board data compression, and processed by automatic pipelines to produce calibrated science products. The in-flight performance of the instrument matches or exceeds predictions based on pre-launch testing and modelling: the photometer sensitivity is comparable to or slightly better than estimated pre-launch, and the spectrometer sensitivity is also better by a factor of 1.5-2. Key words. instrumentation: photometers -instrumentation: spectrographs -space vehicles: instruments -submillimeter: generalHerschel is an ESA space observatory with science instruments provided by European-led Principal Investigator consortia and with important participation from NASA.
The structure and variability of the middle atmosphere of Venus (60 to 140 km) were studied from the Pioneer Venus orbiter by using an infrared remote sensing instrument developed from those on terrestrial weather satellites. The wavelengths observed were selected to allow the vertical temperature profile, the albedo, the cloud opacity profile, and the far infrared opacity due to water vapor to be inferred from the data. The measured temperature field has been used to model the dynamics of the region, and the thermal and solar fluxes have been used to compute the planetary radiation budget. The results for the diurnal variation of temperature at a given height show fairly small amplitudes up to an altitude of about 95 km, above which the day to night contrast increases rapidly with height. At the equator the dependence of temperature in the stratosphere (65 to 95 km) on solar longitude is dominated by a wave number 2 solar tide with an amplitude of about 10 K. Transient features including traveling waves are also present on a wide range of scales. The equator to pole gradients are larger than expected, and the stratosphere is typically 15 to 20 K warmer at the pole than at the equator. Nightside temperatures in the mesosphere (95 to 140 km) are generally low except for a local maximum near the antisolar point, and breakdown of local thermodynamic equilibrium is evident above about 120 km. The winds forced by the measured temperature field in a diagnostic circulation model show the ‘4‐day’ zonal wind decreasing rapidly with height above the clouds and becoming very small by 80 or 90 km. altitude. The mean meridional component reverses at about the same altitude and pole‐to‐equator winds as high as 100 m s−1 are produced above 100 km. The most significant discovery concerning the cloud morphology is a dramatic ‘dipole’ structure, consisting of two clearings in the cloud at locations straddling the pole and rotating around it every 2.7 days. The clearings are thought to be evidence for subsidence of the atmosphere at the center of a polar vortex. The absence of corresponding evidence for descending motions elsewhere suggests that a single large circulation cell may fill the northern hemisphere at levels near the cloud tops. A crescent‐shaped ‘collar’ region, consisting of anomalous and variable temperature and cloud structure, surrounds the pole at about 70°N and rises perhaps 15 km above the mean cloud top elevation; it has a solar‐fixed component and sometimes contains spiral streaks. This feature, and the double vortex eye, are large, persistent deviations from the mean circulation due to planetary‐scale waves of unknown origin. No explanation is offered at present for the dominance of wave number 2 structures at equatorial and polar latitudes, while the mid‐latitudes are dominated by a wave number 1 feature (the polar collar). A thin, ubiquitous haze is found covering the northern hemisphere, including the polar features. The far‐infrared opacity of the atmosphere is greater in the afternoon than at any other lo...
The surface of Saturn's largest satellite--Titan--is largely obscured by an optically thick atmospheric haze, and so its nature has been the subject of considerable speculation and discussion. The Huygens probe entered Titan's atmosphere on 14 January 2005 and descended to the surface using a parachute system. Here we report measurements made just above and on the surface of Titan by the Huygens Surface Science Package. Acoustic sounding over the last 90 m above the surface reveals a relatively smooth, but not completely flat, surface surrounding the landing site. Penetrometry and accelerometry measurements during the probe impact event reveal that the surface was neither hard (like solid ice) nor very compressible (like a blanket of fluffy aerosol); rather, the Huygens probe landed on a relatively soft solid surface whose properties are analogous to wet clay, lightly packed snow and wet or dry sand. The probe settled gradually by a few millimetres after landing.
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