CPL is an instrument developed by Dr. Matt McGill of the Mesoscale Atmospheric Processes Branch (Code 912) at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. It was designed to be flown in an high altitude ER-2 aircraft. Sigma was responsible for the system analysis, opto-mechanical definition and design, fabrication, assembly and testing of the opto-mechanical system of the instrument. In addition, Sigma personnel developed portions of the data acquisition software and firmware for the mission. The instrument development effort went from requirements definition to instrument delivery in just eight months.
The mechanical design and analysis involved structural analysis using NASTRAN, and thermal analysis. The instrument is housed in a pressurized vessel containing N2 to control the thermal environment and to avoid condensation which would occur due to the varying temperatures that the instrument is exposed to. This new instrument replaces a previous version which was about three times larger in volume and mass. The new compact design has enabled each ER-2 mission to carry a much larger suite of instruments.