REU Student - Summer 2016
Montana State University
Advisors: Dr. Joseph Shaw
This summer I have been working on the Infrared Cloud Imager (ICI). This concept of the ICI has been in development here at MSU for 20 year and was recently deployed at Barrows Alaska by Paul Nugent for 2 continuous years. My project has been about designing how this will fit into a new box or package.
This project is in preparation for the 2017 solar eclipse. We want to model who the polarization patter of the eclipsed sky differs from the normal sky. In the past observers of total eclipses could say “The sky was clear” or “There were some clouds to the west.” With this ICI we can do better and quantify the amount of clouds and thus include their effects in the model we will build.
All of that being said this summer I started building the ICI. I have manufactured most of the organizational parts like the shelves to hold the different components and prepared the box for the installation of the motorized lens cover as well as building the lens cover’s mechanical parts.