This project is no longer running.
AQRC scientists have designed and built a new broad-band light source instrument to adapt the Hybrid Integrating Plate/Sphere Analysis (HIPS) light absorption measurement for a full spectrum of wavelengths throughout the visible and including the near IR and UV. Work is underway to develop approaches for calibration and for analysis of the data from this new spectrometer.
The spectrometer’s broadband light source has an output spanning 190 to 1700 nm. Light from the source is directed through a collimating and focusing assembly and then onto each sampled filter. An integrating sphere captures light reflected from the filter, and there are detectors for both the reflected light and the light transmitted through the filter. The light absorbance for each filter is calculated from these reflected and transmitted light values. Light from the reflectance and transmittance detectors is directed through fiber optic bundles to an ultraviolet/visible/near-infrared spectrometer. The spectrometer separates the signals by wavelength and thus allows the calculation of light absorption at multiple regions of the spectrum.