Background
Emissivity of the Earth's different surface types helps determine the efficiency with which the planet radiatively cools to space and is a critical variable in climate models. However, to date, most measurements of surface emissivity have been made in the mid-infrared. The FINESSE project is novel in employing a ground-based system capable of extending these datasets into the Far-infrared. The system is tuned in particular for targeting ice and snow, as the response of the climate to global warming is observed to
be most rapid in Arctic regions. Far-infrared emissivity data provided by FINESSE will inform climate modelling studies seeking to better understand this rapid change. They will also help to validate emissivity retrievals from upcoming satellite instruments focusing on the far-infrared which will be deployed by ESA (FORUM) and NASA (PREFIRE).
Software is needed to control and record from the various hardware components of the FINESSE rig. While there is existing software written in C#, it has a number of limitations, is not written to professional standards and its source code is not available.
Our Contribution
The researchers approached our team asking if we could first rewrite their existing C#-based software, to be released as open-source software. The second phase of the project, which is currently underway, involves adapting this software to support a new interferometer rig, based on different hardware, which will be deployed on a research aircraft.
We took the decision to write the software in Python using the PySide6 Qt bindings for the GUI components. It provides a convenient interface for controlling the various hardware components and viewing data produced, including a Bruker EM27 spectrometer, a stepper motor for controlling the mirror, two temperature controllers and a separate temperature monitoring array.
Outcomes
The software is now continuously subjected to a full test suite via GitHub Actions and has been released on GitHub as open source. It is more modular and extensible than the original C# software and the repository includes technical documentation. It is currently being extended to support the new hardware required for the UNIRAS project.
In contrast to the original software, for which different versions were developed to support different hardware, FINESSE can support multiple hardware configurations within a single program and is easily extensible to new hardware either for future SPAT projects or by other labs.
Testimonials
Dr Jon Murray, Research Fellow and Lab Manager:
“We required a purpose designed and implemented monitoring and control system interfacing between the operator/scientist and all hardware components. These components are identified and sourced by the lead scientists based on the project requirements, both in terms of science objectives and operational environment. As researchers in the field of remote sensing we require that the system control should auto-detect hardware sub-systems, be robust, versatile, informative, and interactive in a real-time setting. The FINESSE GUI interface does all of this with a hardware control system hidden behind an intuitive interface. The RSE team we have engaged with has taken the time to understand our needs, gain experience of the array of devices and have implemented a highly usable GUI system we feel confident will be supported beyond any change in the science and RSE teams.”