Command and data handling system for the Panchromatic Fourier Transform Spectrometer

Panchromatic Fourier Transform Spectrometer (Pan-FTS) is an Instrument Incubator Program (IIP) funded development to build and demonstrate a single instrument capable of meeting or exceeding the requirements of the Geostationary Coastal and Air Pollution Events (GEO-CAPE) mission. Pan-FTS has recently started operation at Mt. Wilson, CA, providing atmospheric measurement capabilities in the IR and UV-VIS. The currently deployed instrument includes two Focal Plane Arrays (FPA): a Raytheon IR FPA and a JPL developed UV-VIS FPA. This paper discusses the major electronic and software components of the instrument´s FPGA-based command and data handling (C&DH) system. Progress made in the last year is discussed, with emphasis on the overall system architecture, FPA data acquisition, sigma-delta filter design, and optical path-difference mechanism (OPDM) control. Spectra recorded with single element detectors by PanFTS at Mt. Wilson are presented.