Lunar absorption spectrophotometer for measuring atmospheric water vapor.

A novel instrument has been designed to measure the nighttime atmospheric water vapor column abundance by near-infrared absorption spectrophotometry of the Moon. The instrument provides a simple, effective, portable, and inexpensive means of rapidly measuring the water vapor content along the lunar line of sight. Moreover, the instrument is relatively insensitive to the atmospheric model used and, thus, serves to provide an independent calibration for other measures of precipitable water vapor from both ground- and space-based platforms.