Michigan Aerospace Corporation has teamed with the John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory for the
design and fabrication of the prototype instrument for the GIFS (Geostationary Imaging Fabry-Perot Spectrometer) program. Under
this effort, MAC will design and fabricate a passive triple-etalon interferometer for deployment and operation aboard a LearJet
25C aircraft as a precursor to the spaceflight instrument. Operating at the 14,502.8219 cm-1 and 14,504.7954 cm-1
lines, this instrument will consist of three tunable Fabry-Perot etalons aligned in series and spectrally scanned across a CCD
image plane, producing a spatially coherent spectral image of backscattered solar radiation from cloud and ground features.
The instrument will enable measurements of cloud top temperature, pressure and altitude on a global scale, when deployed in
geostationary orbit. Introduction of these data points into weather forecasting models will lead to significant improvements
in the forecasting of weather events, including hurricane motion and intensity. Deployment of the prototype GIFS instrument is
expected in the summer of 2008.
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