Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 April 2016
The strategic value of infrared sensing has prompted military development — mostly in the USA — of detectors for 8-30 μm far more sensitive than any commercially available. In 1970-72 the Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratories conducted a rocket-borne survey of the sky N. of about -35° dec at 4,11 and 20 μm. Although this survey was initially classified, a small number of preliminary versions of it were distributed to selected infrared astronomers based at U.S. institutions.