Image plane detector spectrophotometer: construction and nightglow observations

Following the theoretical simulation of an image plane detector spectrophotometer (IPDS) presented in a previous paper, a ground-based IPDS for airglow measurements is constructed. This low resolution spectrometer can measure a molecular band spectrum at 12 wavelength positions simultaneously without mechanical scan. The band brightness and rotational temperature of the emitter can be obtained from the measurements. We describe the optical design and calibration of the instrument and present some results of mesospheric nightglow observations. The evaluation and analysis on the performances of the new instrument are also given. The result shows that, although the constructed instrument does not represent the optimized IPDS, the instrument performed reasonably well, and with some improvements the IPDS has great potential of being used to study small-scale oscillations in airglow layers.