A Self-Contained Solar Radiation Measurement Package for an Aircraft

"Sonoma Design Group proposes to design a rugged, highly stable, stand-alone instrument package for measuring solar fluxes and optical depth from an airborne platform. This system will consist of a highly stabilized platform using a fiber optic gyro(FOG)-based inertial navigation system (INS). This platform houses sensors such as photometers and radiometers and includes mounting hardware. To reduce design and recurring production costs, we will integrate commercial products into the design whereappropriate. The result will be a very capable, reusable platform that will significantly reduce the cost of payload experiments. This self-contained system will also increase aerial platform flexibility, making the instrument package applicable toaircraft with indicated airspeeds as high as 450 knots. During the course of the Phase I effort we will be working with industry experts to verify sensor selection and applicability. The work will culminate with a concept design and preliminary layoutfor a complete, stand-alone integrated data collection system This stand-alone instrumentation package fills a general need for atmospheric research and monitoring programs. This system uses an elegant and robust design to achieve gimbal stability, henceenhanced sensor performance. It provides a stabilized housing that readily accepts varied sensors and instruments. Stabilizing aircraft jitter from the sensors enables focused data reduction effort