OSAS-B: A Balloon-Borne Terahertz Spectrometer for Atomic Oxygen in the Upper Atmosphere
Martin Wienold, A. Semenov, Enrico Dietz, Sven Frohmann, Patrick Dern, Xiang Lü, L. Schrottke, K. Biermann, Bernd Klein, Heinz‐Wilhelm Hübers
Abstract
The oxygen spectrometer for atmospheric science on a balloon (OSAS-B) is the first 4.7-THz heterodyne spectrometer on a stratospheric balloon. It has been developed for remote sensing of the 4.7-THz emission of neutral atomic oxygen in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere of the Earth. OSAS-B comprises a heterodyne receiver based on a hot-electron bolometer mixer and a quantum-cascade laser as local oscillator. The high sensitivity of the superconducting detector and the large resolving power of approximately 1×10 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">7</sup> enable the detection of subtle signatures of radiation transport and high-altitude winds in the measured spectra. The first flight of the instrument took place on September 7th, 2022 from Esrange, Sweden.