Far-infrared sensor for cirrus (FIRSC): an aircraft-based Fourier-transform spectrometer to measure cloud radiance.

We describe an aircraft-based Fourier-transform spectrometer (FTS) designed to measure the Earth outgoing radiance spectrum in the far-infrared-submillimeter spectral range. The instrument features include a rapid-scan FTS to obtain high spatial resolution from a moving aircraft platform, a sensitive two-channel detector, and a CCD camera for recording the nadir cloud scene with each scan record. Such measurements demonstrate the sensitivity of Earth radiance to high clouds and provide spectral data for improving techniques for remote sensing and retrieval of atmospheric and cloud properties.