General Description
The SwRI Ultraviolet Reflectance Chamber (SWURC) is a state of the art UV reflectometer chamber and data acquisition system that can measure the bidirectional reflectance from 115 to 180 nm over various reflectance angles. UV reflectance spectroscopy is a valuable tool for studying airless planetary surfaces. However, the lack of laboratory measurements of materials at far-UV wavelengths has limited the interpretation of remote sensing UV data from the Moon, asteroids, comets, etc. The SwURC provides laboratory-based vacuum UV reflectance measurements of water frost/ice, lunar soils, simulants, and analogs to support interpretation of UV mapping data from current UV space instruments, including the Lyman Alpha Mapping Project (LAMP) on Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and the Alice UV imaging spectrograph on both New Horizons and Rosetta. Measurements of numerous materials are planned, including volatile frosts of relevance to outer solar system bodies and newly developed optical materials. This unique facility at SwRI is available to guest users (contact Kurt Retherford).