Remote Sensing: Ultraviolet

Remote Sensing: Ultraviolet

Setting new standards for ultraviolet instruments

LASP is renowned for building high-performance ultraviolet instruments since NASA’s historic Mariner 5 mission launched in 1967. Since that time, our engineers have continued to build new generations of ultraviolet spectrometers whose measurements have revolutionized our understanding of Earth, Venus, Mars, and Saturn’s breathtaking rings.

The LASP-built Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph (IUVS) aboard NASA’s MAVEN mission continues to provide global measurements of molecules, atoms, and ions in the Martian atmosphere and corona. These data are allowing scientists to better understand how gases have gradually escaped from the Red Planet’s atmosphere, altering it from a warm and wet environment to the cold, dry conditions we observe today.
 

Our engineers are currently developing a reflected-solar spectrometer for NASA’s CLARREO Pathfinder mission, which will continue a crucial 40-year climate record while setting new standards for absolute calibration.

The LASP-built IUVS instrument for the MAVEN mission