<title>Studying atmosphere by a method for remote sounding of Earth limb from on board orbital stations</title>

Abstract

Use has been made of a technique to determine the distribution in atmosphere of the so-called optically active components (aerosol, ozone, water vapor etc) by the brightness profiles of atmosphere on a horizon, measured from space. Developed are the PHASE eight-channel aerospace teleradiometer and laboratory equipment for its study and graduation (including the complex for an absolute graduation and collimator for reading the characteristics of the teleradiometer field of vision) . The PHASE teleradiometer has been installed on the board of orbital complex "Salyut-7" -"Cosmos-1686" -"Sojuz-T14" and more than 10 000 brightness profiles were obtained over various regions of the Earth. The second copy of this teleradiometer is at present onthe "Quantum-2" module oforbital station "Mir". The processing ofobtained information has shown that the profiles separate distinctly, for instance, the aerosol layers at altitudes of 15 to 22 km (the Younger layer) and 45 to 50 km.

Optics in Estonia: Research and Innovation Highlights

“…The production included vacuum ultraviolet double monochromators-the first such ones in the world (its next, further elaborated version received a patent in the USA (No. 4,523,845))-for research laboratories and a series of spaceborne spectrometers for Soviet space stations 'Salyut-4', 'Salyut-7', 'Kosmos-1686', and 'Mir' (The results were published, e.g., in [35]).…”

A Measuring System for Passive Optical Remote Sensing of Water Bodies

“…Calibration of the marine radiance and colour index meters has also been described in the literature (Hoge et al, 1986;Aas 1993a, b). The calibration of telespectrometer PEGASUS bases on the experience and instrumentation of the Space Research Laboratory of the Institute of Astrophysics and Atmospheric Physics (now Tartu Observatory) (Veismann et al, 1993;Veismann, 1995).…”