Date of Award

2018

Access Type

Thesis - Open Access

Degree Name

Master of Science in Engineering Physics

Department

Physical Sciences

Committee Chair

Edwin Mierkiewicz

First Committee Member

Jason Aufdenberg

Second Committee Member

Bereket Berhane

Abstract

The REd-line DASH Demonstration Instrument (REDDI) was designed to prove that a Doppler Asymmetric Spatial Heterodyne (DASH) spectrometer could be used to accurately measure thermospheric winds by observing the Doppler shift of the 630nm emission of oxygen in the thermosphere. In 2015, we began a project to redesign the input optics of REDDI to repurpose the instrument from a demonstration unit to a long duration instrument. Integration of REDDI into the INSpIRe (Investigating Near-Space Interaction Regions) trailer at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU), Daytona Beach, began in 2016 with assembly of the new input optics in 2017. REDDI and INSpIRe will remain at ERAU until full loadout and instrument checkout is completed in late 2018, at which time it will be moved to a dark site. After recovering from a serious camera malfunction, full testing of REDDI commenced in January 2018. Thermospheric oxygen was first detected on 31 January, with first lateral winds being measured on 6 February. In total 20 nights of data were observed from 31 January to 6 March 2018. Thermospheric wind magnitudes ranging from 50 to 200 m/s were detected most nights despite a challenging observation location and constantly changing weather conditions.

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