European Facility For Airborne Research Dec. 5, 2025, 08:44
| Name | Manchester 2D-S (stereo) Optical Array Probe |
| Acronym | SPEC-2DS |
| Manufacturer | Stratton Park Engineering Company Inc. |
| Manufacturer website | http://www.specinc.com/index.htm |
| Operated by | UNIMAN |
| Operated onboard |
| Name | Optical Array Probe (OAP) |
| Acronym | Optical Array Probe |
| Measured parameter | Particle shadow area/diameter |
| Operating principle | Optical array probe. Cloud particle enters field of view passing through a laser beam. Particle shadow falls on a collecting optical array (normally a photodiode array). This is sampled at a rate such that the pixel resolution in time is the same as that in the across-array dimension. This forms a digitized shadow image of the particle. |
| Measurement(s) | Clouds & Precipitation |
| External dimension | PMS/DMT canister mounting instrument |
| Weight | 15.0 |
| Operating mode | In situ |
| Range | |
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| Modifications | |
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| Operational requirements | |
| Certification approvals | Certifed on FAAM BAe146 aircraft |
| Additional information | This is an updated version of the Optical Array Probe principle. It employs ultra-fast detectors so that 10 micron resolution at sampling speeds up to 200 m/s is possible. By recording the full diffraction image of particles away from the focal plane of the imaging system, estimation of their true size and depth-of-field is possible. |
| Access | Available on the FAAM BAe146 aircraft, operated by University of Manchester |
| Could also fit on any aircraft having the following characteristics | |
| General description |
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| No documents. |