Doppler Asymmetric Spatial Heterodyne Spectrometer (DASH) for Measuring Winds in the Upper Atmosphere (90-300km)

This scope of this Phase II proposal is to develop a space flight prototype Doppler Asymmetric Spatial Heterodyne (DASH) spectrometer for the measurement of upper atmospheric winds.  A space flight prototype instrument will be built and tested to show DASH can successfully measure simulated Doppler winds in an environment similar to the environment it would be operating in on orbit.  This Phase II proposal builds on the recent laboratory demonstration that Spatial Heterodyne Spectrometers (SHS) can be modified to passively measure extremely small changes in wavelength from an emitting source (Englert et al, 2007).  DASH is a modified SHS and is a new type of Fourier transform spectrometer which requires no scanning mechanical components, can be built in a compact monolithic configuration, and maintain the same throughput as the best FTS instruments currently known. BENEFIT: There currently does not exist an operational satellite instrument, or ground-based instrument based capability to measure real time global atmospheric winds in the Mesosphere and Thermosphere.  The DoD recognizes the necessity of obtaining global upper atmospheric winds as an operational need for forecasting communications/navigation outages and for accurately predicting satellite drag affecting satellite orbits.  DASH holds the potential of being a low cost, compact, robust solution for obtaining global atmospheric winds from space.