Physics – Optics
Scientific paper
Oct 1995
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1995ssrv...74..101b&link_type=abstract
Space Science Reviews, Volume 74, Issue 1-2, pp. 101-112
Physics
Optics
1
Infrared Telescopes, Balloons
Scientific paper
The tropopause, typically at 16 to 18 km altitude at the lower latitudes, dips to 8 km in the polar regions. This makes the cold, dry and nonturbulent lower stratosphere accessible to tethered aerostats. Tethered aerostats can fly as high as 12 km and are extremely reliable, lasting for many years. In contrast to free-flying balloons, they can stay on station for weeks at a time, and payloads can be safely recovered for maintenance and adjustment and relaunched in a matter of hours. We propose to use such a platform, located first in the Arctic (near Fairbanks, Alaska) and, potentially, later in the Antarctic, to operate a new technology 6-meter, diluted aperture telescope with diffraction-limited performance in the near infrared. Thanks to the low ambient temperature (220 K), thermal emission from the optics is of the same order as that of the zodiacal light in the 2 to 3 micron band. Since this wavelength interval is the darkest part of the zodiacal light spectrum from optical wavelengths to 100 microns, the combination of high resolution images and a very dark sky make it the spectral region of choice for observing the redshifted light from galaxies and clusters of galaxies at moderate to high redshifts.
Bally John
Bely Pierre-Yves
Burg Richard
Ford Holland C.
Petro Larry
No associations
LandOfFree
POST: Polar Stratospheric Telescope does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.
If you have personal experience with POST: Polar Stratospheric Telescope, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and POST: Polar Stratospheric Telescope will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1357183