Development and Characterization of the OSIRIS USASK Obsevatory

by Stoicescu, Michael Barry

The OSIRIS instrument on board the Odin satellite uses limb viewing techniques to measure scattered sunlight and so determine the vertically resolved concentrations of atmospheric constituents including ozone. Initially, a proof of concept instrument was built and tested. This instrument, the Developmental Model, is now housed at the third floor clean room of the Physics Building on the University of Saskatchewan campus.

The Developmental Model was incorporated into a system designed to monitor scattered sunlight above Saskatoon. The system was set up to transmit skylight to the Developmental Model using a fiber optic cable and to perform all measurements automatically and with minimal user interaction. The system was calibrated to determine the pixel to wavelength response. Characterizations of the point spread function and relative intensity response of the detector were also made. A shutter system was designed and constructed to measure the detector dark current. An enclosure was built on the top of the Physics Building to provide a weather proof environment and so allow data collection throughout the year. Zenith sky measurements were taken during twilight hours to provide information on the depth of absorption in the Chappuis band, an indicator of the total ozone column. The absorption depth was converted to a Dobson Unit measurement for the ozone column.

Analysis of collected data provides two conclusions. The first is that a measurement set in the presence of clouds shows different signatures than a clear measurement set. The second conclusion is the detection of a diurnal trend in the total ozone column with greater amounts measured in the morning. The OSIRIS USASK Observatory is now operational and collecting data for future analysis of scattered sunlight measurements above Saskatoon.