Patent Award to Jim Hannigan and Bill Mankin
Interferometer patent #9,952,031
The patent was issued to two ACD / ACOM employees on April 24, 2018. Bill Mankin is an Emeritus senior scientist who retired in 2001 but remains in contact with Jim Hannigan and the Optical Techniques Group. Jim started at NCAR in 1991 and continues the research in remote sensing and FTIR measurements. The instrument was developed to respond to the need for a compact, robust FTIR for atmospheric remote sensing applications. A small instrument could find use in an aircraft like HAIPER, a UAV, or a ground-based mobile laboratory. The instrument can be designed small and robust enough to deploy as an array of instruments on the ground and take autonomous, routine measurements of greenhouse gases or species such as ethane and formaldehyde (important to air quality). The measurements would provide data to make quantitive assessments of local emissions or flux across a target source or a city. We are also investigating our ability to continue the project begun jointly with HAO during the 2017 Solar Eclipse to observe previously unmeasured theorized transitions in the solar photosphere out to 15 microns.
