MOPITT Stirling Cycle Cooler and Cooler Drive Electronics Evaluation

This paper summarizes the vibration compensation results of a Stirling cycle cooler (SCC) for the Measurements Of Pollution In The Troposphere (MOPITT) instrument which will fly on the Earth Observation System AM (EOS-AM) platform. MOPITT is an infrared radiometer that measures global concentrations of CO and CH4 in the lower atmosphere and requires a pair of vibration compensated SCCs to cool the detectors while meeting the NASA EOS platform’s stringent jitter requirements. The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) has contracted COM DEV Atlantic to design and build the instrument which was conceived by a multinational science team. The MOPITT Principal Investigator is Dr. James R. Drummond of the University of Toronto.