Submillimeter atmospheric FTS at the geographic South Pole

A submillimeter Fourier Transform Spectrometer of the Martin-Puplett type was constructed and deployed to the geographical South Pole in 2001. The instrument operates from about 300 GHz to almost 2 THz and was used over winter to acquire atmospheric spectra with resolution as fine as 250 MHz. The main motivation for constructing and deploying this FTS was for astronomical site testing, but the obtained spectra can have important secondary uses in atmospheric science and transmission model validation. Some preliminary, low spectral resolution site testing results are presented here.

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