Far-infrared camera images rocket plumes

Far-infrared camera images rocket plumes

Amber, a Raytheon subsidiary (Goleta, CA), has joined with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL, Pasadena, CA) to engineer a cooled long-wavelength-infrared (LWIR) camera. The system, partially funded by the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization, features a JPL GaAs quantum-well infrared photodetector (QWIP) integrated into an Amber Radiance camera to utilize the 256 ¥ 256-pixel readout multiplexer. The QWI¥detector offers high detector-to-detector element uniformity, low noise, and ease of fabrication. The QWI¥focal-plane array exhibits a peak bandpass of 8.4 µm and a noise-equivalent temperature difference of 25 mK or less. The camera`s 100-mm-focal-length germanium lens operates in the 8-12-µm wavelength band and allows a 5.5° field of view. Testing began in mid-November 1995 and has included rocket-exhaust plume analyses at the Kennedy Space Center.