Airborne Infrared Astronomy

Extract

Infrared astronomical observations using ground-based equipment are confined to the few ‘windows’ or observation ports allowed by our absorbing atmosphere, the chief absorbing molecules being water vapour and CO₂. The majority of such observations have been made using broadband filters defining the photometric J, H, K, L, M, N and O bands. Some narrow band and spectral work (essentially all photometric) has also been carried out, particularly in the 8-14 micron window. From a very few high altitude, cold, dry sites (where the integrated water vapour content of the atmosphere above the site is consistently less than 1mm), it is possible to make observations at 35 and 345 microns. In Australia, the integrated water vapour content above us is typically 15 mm, only rarely dropping below 7 mm, so that long wavelength IR measurements simply cannot be made using ground-based instruments in Australia. Water vapour is fortunately not well mixed in our atmosphere and by raising our observational platform to a high enough altitude we can in fact achieve quite high transmission for all wavelengths from 10 microns to 1 mm, where we link up with microwave observations using essentially radio techniques.