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We report on the measurement of the transmittance and reflectance of unpolarized light (425–700 nm) in three birefringent, acousto-optic materials, including quartz, lithium niobate, and tellurium dioxide, after exposure to varying fluences of proton radiation ( 10 14 − 10 18 p r o t o n s / c m 2 ) delivered by a 10 keV hydrogen ion beamline. We observe a general monotonic decrease in transmittance with increasing fluence for all three materials, but with varying rates of change and critical points of change. Reflectance measurements also exhibit a general monotonic trend with fluence, but increases in quartz are observed versus decreases in both lithium niobate and tellurium dioxide. These observations are used to assess the suitability of the materials for acousto-optic applications in the space environment where charged particles from the solar wind are dominant and pose a threat to device operation. Our measurements agree with previously reported work concluding that tellurium dioxide is suitable for space applications at low fluences (below 10 16 i o n s / c m 2 ), but our findings also raise previously unreported concerns for higher accumulated fluences observed for longer mission lifetimes of greater than five to 10 years in space in an unshielded configuration.

An elegant breadboard prototype of the Aerosol Limb Imager (ALI) has been developed to meet key performance parameters that will meet requirements for the retrieval of aerosol from the upper troposphere and stratosphere from limb scattered sunlight radiance measurements. Similar in concept to previous high altitude balloon-based generations, this instrument pairs a liquid crystal polarization rotator with an acousto-optic tunable filter to capture polarimetric multi-spectral images of the atmospheric limb. This design improves the vertical resolution, signal-to-noise ratio, and athermalization, all of which will facilitate observation from a moving high altitude aircraft platform, which provides a platform analogous to the spatially varying measurements that would be made from a satellite. Finally, a preliminary design is presented for a satellite-based generation of ALI.

Spatial heterodyne spectroscopy (SHS) has been successfully applied to measure variations in water vapor pressure in the lab. An imaging system is combined with a monolithic field-widened SHS to observe a white-light source through a 1 m length water vapor cell that is designed to produce predictable variations in the water vapor pressure. The performance of the spectrometer design is examined by comparing spectra simulated using a radiative transfer model to observed spectra at several cell pressures. The intended application of the instrument to vertically resolve the water vapor profile in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere using limb-scattered radiation in a vibrational band of water (1363-1366 nm) is also introduced.