BAS—The project of an earth-atmosphere spectrophotometer for basic research

The earth-atmosphere spectrophotometer BAS is intended to be used for basic research in the field of remote sensing. The main advantages of BAS are the possibility of a high-accuracy calibration in absolute units utilizing the extraterrestrial spectral solar energy distribution and its simultaneous use for radiance and for irradiance measurements, e.g. the same spectrophotometer BAS to measure immediately one after the other the high irradiances of the sun (transmission measurement) and very low radiances of water surfaces.Data evaluation will be made immediately by the BAS-linked computer for field measurements.Further important technical parameters of BAS are the scanning of the spectral range 0.38 to 1.12 μm in 40 steps within 3 s, low mass of about 4 kg, power supply by rechargeable battery pack. BAS is also suited for measurements to be made from airborne and shipborne platforms.Different applications are shown by some examples.