MRI: Development of a Compact Echelle Spectrograph for Aeronomical Research (CESAR)

研究人员将设计、制造、校准和调试一台用于航空研究的便携式紧凑型中阶梯光谱仪（塞萨尔），其波长覆盖范围为310 - 1040 nm，分辨率为波长的1/20，000，灵敏度专门为满足大气研究人员的需求而定制。 为了提供大气研究所需的增强的空间覆盖范围，塞萨尔将从7度至20度的视场狭缝采样光谱，具有全天覆盖和任意狭缝方向。 塞萨尔设计用于自主操作，支持需求仅限于电力和互联网接入。 由于光谱分辨率、灵敏度、响应时间和仪器的可运输性的巨大改进，光谱仪将使从平流层到外逸层的动力学、物理学和化学的新研究成为可能。 将该仪器与NSF的先进模块化非相干散射雷达（AMISR）（目前位于阿拉斯加的扑克平地研究范围）放在一起，将能够详细评估离子和中性粒子之间的能量转移以及极光内部和下方大气区域的垂直耦合。 通过同时监测宽范围的波长，可以监测极光后大气成分的变化以及驱动极光的初级电子能量。 阿拉斯加还是HAARP电离层加热设施的所在地，该设施将受益于该仪器高分辨率和宽光谱范围提供的额外诊断信息。 该仪器的可运输性使其能够参与非极光观测活动，如对犹他州熊湖观测站出现的电离层气泡进行调查，在那里它将提供关于重要原子和分子物质同时发射的信息，并对长寿流星群的机制进行调查。 SRI致力于开发塞萨尔，以培养学生，刺激大气调查的新途径，并加强学术研究的支持基础。 由六所大学的研究人员组成的塞萨尔开发小组负责制定设计和调试目标，这将最大限度地提高研究生、博士后研究员和教师级大气研究人员的参与程度。 学术和工业团队成员将在塞萨尔制造期间为新学生和博士后研究员提供实践经验。 来自阿拉斯加大学、康奈尔大学、伊利诺伊大学和犹他州州立大学的高级人员在阿拉斯加州费尔班克斯的扑克平板火箭靶场（PFRR）为塞萨尔制定了一套科学目标。 这些目标将通过调查电子和质子沉淀、极光对大气成分的影响、流星化学和原子氧对热层加热的反应，利用塞萨尔的独特能力。 塞萨尔仪器将对我国的研究基础设施产生持久的影响，使学术研究人员能够远程访问来自遥远但具有重要意义的政权的高价值光谱数据。 这一项目还将加强空间科学实地研究与辅助性物理化学实验室研究之间的联系。

The investigators will design, fabricate, calibrate, and commission a portable Compact Echelle Spectrograph for Aeronomical Research (CESAR), with 310 -1040 nm wavelength coverage, a resolution of 1/20,000 of the wavelength, and sensitivity specifically tailored to meet the needs of atmospheric researchers. In order to provide the enhanced spatial coverage required for atmospheric research, the CESAR will sample spectra from a 7 degree to 20 degree field-of-view slit with all-sky coverage and arbitrary slit orientation. The CESAR is designed for autonomous operation with support needs limited to power and internet access. Because of the great improvement in spectral resolution, sensitivity, response time, and the instrument's transportability, the spectrograph will enable new investigations of the dynamics, physics, and chemistry from the stratosphere to the exosphere. Co-locating the instrument with NSF's Advanced Modular Incoherent Scatter Radar (AMISR), currently situated at Alaska's Poker Flat Research Range, would enable detailed evaluation of the energy transfer between ions and neutrals and the vertical coupling of atmospheric regions within and below the aurora. By monitoring a broad range of wavelengths simultaneously, the changes in atmospheric composition following an aurora may be monitored as well as the primary electron energy driving the aurora. Alaska is also the site of the HAARP ionospheric heating facility, which would benefit from the additional diagnostic information provided by the instrument's high resolution and broad spectral range. The transportability of the instrument allows it to participate in non-auroral observational campaigns such as investigations of ionospheric bubbles occurring at Bear Lake Observatory in Utah, where it would contribute information on simultaneous emissions from important atomic and molecular species, and investigations of the mechanisms for long-lived meteor trains. SRI is committed to developing the CESAR so as to train students, stimulate new avenues of atmospheric investigation, and strengthen the support base for academic research. A CESAR development team has been formed with researchers from six universities to craft design and commissioning goals which will maximize the involvement of graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and faculty level atmospheric researchers. Academic and industrial team members will give new students and postdoctoral fellows hands-on experience during CESAR fabrication. Senior personnel from the University of Alaska, Cornell University, University of Illinois, and Utah State University have created a set of science goals for CESAR at the Poker Flat Rocket Range (PFRR) in Fairbanks, Alaska. These goals will leverage CESAR's unique capabilities by investigating electron and proton precipitation, auroral impact on atmospheric composition, meteoric chemistry, and atomic oxygen response to thermospheric heating. The CESAR instrument will have a lasting effect on our nation's research infrastructure by enabling remote access by academic researchers to high value spectroscopic data from remote, yet geophysically significant regimes. This project will also reinvigorate the connections between space science field research and supportive physical chemistry laboratory studies.