Grisms For FORCAST - A New Medium Resolution 5-40 Micron Spectroscopic Mode On SOFIA - Performance Testing

Details Grisms For FORCAST - A New Medium Resolution 5-40 Micron Spectroscopic Mode On SOFIA - Performance Testing Grisms For FORCAST - A New Medium Resolution 5-40 Micron Spectroscopic Mode On SOFIA - Performance Testing

Dec 2007

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007aas...211.1114e&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #211, #11.14; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 39, p.746

Physics

Optics

Scientific paper

Grisms provide a straightforward method to transform an imager into a spectrometer with little change to the original imaging optics. This paper addresses recent laboratory (ambient and 4K) performance testing of a suite of grisms as part of an Astrobiology Science and Instrument Development (ASTID) Program to implement a moderate resolution spectroscopic capability to the mid/far-IR facility instrument FORCAST for the Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA).
A moderate resolution mid-IR spectrometer on SOFIA will offer advantages not available to either ground or space-based instruments after the Spitzer Space Telescope ceases cold operation in late 2008. From SOFIA it will be possible to obtain nearly continuous coverage over a wide range of wavelengths, particularly in the 5-9 micron band, where detection of astrobiologically interesting molecules have key spectral signatures that are not accessible from the ground. The FORCAST grism modes are close in wavelength coverage and resolving power to the Spitzer Infrared Spectrograph (IRS), so that among other possible observations, SOFIA can now enable follow-up studies of the brighter objects that Spitzer has observed and enable studies of sources that were too bright for observation with Spitzer.
The FORCAST grism suite consists of six grisms: four monolithic etched Silicon grisms and two ruled KRS-5 grisms. These devices will allow long-slit low-resolution (R = 100-300) and short-slit, cross-dispersed moderate-resolution spectroscopic modes (R = 800-1200) over much of the 5-40 micron spectral range and will enable observing programs to gather both images and spectra in a single SOFIA flight.

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