A MULTIWAVELENGTH DAYTIME PHOTOMETER - A NEW TOOL FOR THE INVESTIGATION OF ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES

Technological innovations in optics in the form of a spiral mask syste m and in electronics in the form of on-line gate scanning of Fabry-Per ot fringes and critical balancing of gate widths for complete backgrou nd rejection have allowed unambiguous detection of faint dayglow emiss ion features of multiple wavelengths buried in the bright daytime back ground continuum. The technical details of this unique multiwavelength daytime photometer (MWDPM) and its performance characteristics togeth er with its potential application for the investigation of several geo physical phenomena are presented and discussed.