Mike Dulick
The NSO has been awarded an additional three years of funding by the NSF Division of Chemistry, as well as three years of funding from the NASA Upper Atmosphere Research Program, to continue to make the high-resolution Fourier transform spectrometer (FTS) on Kitt Peak available for laboratory spectroscopy. The NSO FTS has capabilities for laboratory spectroscopy that are not available anywhere else in the world. Its total spectral coverage is 550-45,000 cm-1. It simultaneously achieves high resolution (0.0025 cm-1 at 1000 cm-1 and 0.01 cm-1 at 3000 cm-1), excellent signal-to-noise ratio (500:1 for 1-hour integration), and wide bandpass (1000 cm-1 to 3000 cm-1 for a single spectrum). This means that high-quality measurements of line positions, strengths, and widths can be obtained readily.
Over 120 visiting scientists have used the NSO FTS in their research. A very wide range of projects has been carried out, including high-resolution spectroscopy of free radicals and molecular ions, spectroscopy of atoms, atmospheric spectroscopy, long-term monitoring of atmospheric constituents, and laboratory astrophysics. The following visiting investigators have had long-standing research projects that utilize the NSO FTS and are co-investigators on the proposals that were funded: Peter Bernath (Waterloo); Sumner Davis (Berkeley); James Lawler (Wisconsin); Leah O'Brien (Southern Illinois); Curtis Rinsland, Mary Ann Smith, and co-workers (NASA/Langley); Linda Brown, Robert Toth, and co-workers (JPL); Charles Chackerian and co-workers (NASA/Ames); D. Chris Benner and V. Malathy Devi (William and Mary); Don Jennings, Dennis Reuter, and co-workers (NASA/Goddard).