The University of Lethbridge is the home of the
Astronomical Instrumentation Group, led by Dr.
David Naylor who has been with the university
since 1979. Dr. Naylor has achieved an excellent
international reputation in the subject of far-infrared
Fourier transform spectroscopy, the technique used
for SPIRE.
The University of Lethbridge Astronomical Instrumentation
Group has expertise in many different areas such
as optics, electronics, software development, mechanical
design, and project management.
The
Astronomical Instrumentation Group at the University of
Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada.
The
Canadian built test FTS in the SPIRE test facility.
In August 2003 the group delivered a test instrument to the SPIRE laboratory in the UK, which was used for the first time in February 2004 to qualify an early version of the SPIRE instrument. In addition, the University of Lethbridge writes calibration and data processing software for the Herschel Interactive Processing Environment application.
This application is a critical tool for the astronomers who want to use data from Herschel's instrument, including SPIRE. This computer program allows researchers to process the enormous amount of data collected during observations, and transform the raw data into meaningful results such as images and spectra.
John Lindner and Locke Spencer, two graduate students at the
University of Lethbridge, discuss their roles in contributing
to the development of the SPIRE spectrometer. Click here
to watch.
Peter Davis-Imhof and Trevor Fulton explain how Canada helps
to prepare the SPIRE instrument for launch. Click here
to watch.
