Thermal emission spectrometer
From Free net encyclopedia
The Thermal Emission Spectrometer is a type of passive spectrometer that can identify the composition of surfaces by analyzing its infrared spectrum.
Three types of TES data are collected: hyperspectral thermal infrared from 6-50µm, broadband thermal infrared (5-150 µm), and visible/NIR (0.3-2.9 µm) radiometric measurements. The microbolometers are arranged in a 2x3 array and each detector has a field of view of ~3 x 3 km at the surface of Mars.
Thermal emission spectrometers have been used in the Mars Observer, Mars Global Surveyor, and Mars Exploration Rover missions, all of which were developed by Phil Christensen at Arizona State University.
The Phobos program, an unsuccessful Soviet mission to analyse the Martian moon Phobos, also carried one.
See also
- The Mini-TES, a small version of the TES, was used on the Mars Exploration Rovers.