SHIMMER on STS-112: Development and Proof-of-Concept Flight

Abstract

Abstract : The Spatial Heterodyne Imager for Mesospheric Radicals (SHIMMER), which is based on a new interferometric technique called Spatial Heterodyne Spectroscopy (SHS), flew on the Space Shuttle Atlantis mission STS-112 in October 2002. SHS has the advantages of high throughput, high spectral resolution, small size, low mass, all in a rugged instrument with no moving optical components. The SHS proof-of-principal flight successfully demonstrated the suitability of SHS for spaceflight applications where high spectral resolution measurements over a relatively narrow spectral band are required. In addition, the highest spectral resolution measurement of middle atmospheric hydroxyl (OH) solar resonance fluorescence ever achieved was made by SHIMMER during this mission.