Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-physics-of-atmospheres-and-oceans-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2022/4/d/solution

Use one spectral resolution element, , and assume comparable angular resolution horizontally and vertically, so the pixel solid angle is . The question specifies only the vertical angle; without an assumption about horizontal field of view the diameter is not unique. Interpret throughput as dimensionless transmission. With primary collecting area , the power in that element is
when is in square metres. There is no extra factor of multiplying the supplied spectral radiance.
For an integration time s, the order-of-magnitude effective noise bandwidth is Hz. The root-mean-square noise-equivalent power is then W.[ref] A signal-to-noise ratio of 10 requires W, and therefore
An ideal rectangular average of a one-sided white noise spectral density has , giving cm instead. A circular field with diameter changes the diameter by another order-unity factor. These convention choices all require an aperture substantially larger than the mm diffraction estimate, so signal collection is the stronger constraint. The estimate treats the quoted NEP as applicable to the reconstructed channel; a detailed Fourier transform spectroscopy design would also specify scan weighting, background and how interferogram noise propagates into that channel.

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