SPEX Airborne

SPEX airborne is a prototype of SPEXone, a spectropolarimeter that is part of the payload for NASA’s PACE mission and a candidate to be part of ESA’s CO2M mission. SPEX airborne has flown onboard NASA’s high altitude research aircraft ER-2 in a number of campaigns and on a Falcon operated by the SAFIRE in Toulouse (see e.g. ACEPOL and SCARBO campaigns).  SPEX airborne was realized by the same Dutch team that later developed SPEXone. In the near future SPEX airborne will be deployed in the validation campaign for PACE.

Like SPEXone, SPEX airborne is a multi-angle spectropolarimeter for wavelengths between 400 and 800 nm, designed to detect and characterize aerosols in the Earth’s atmosphere. It has nine viewing angles (nadir, +/- 14, +/-28, +/- 42 and +/- 56 degrees) and a 7 degrees across track field of view (at flight altitude 1.5 – 2.5 km swath). The optical bench of SPEX airborne is about 1 liter, with a mass of 1 kg.