I am leading a team to investigate the optimal optical design and materials ready for a possible 5-40 micron imaging- and spectro-polarimeter for NASA’s SOFIA airborne observatory.  Through collaborating with the excellent optics group at CREOL (University of Central Florida), work is progressing on the design of this challenging instrument.  Experience will be drawn from our experience with T-ReCS, CanariCam and MMT-POL.

In 2007, a science advisor board was formed, consisting of the following leading IR polarimetrists:

David Axon (RIT)        Jim Hough (UHerts)            Terry Jones (UMN)  

Pat Roche (Oxford)    Motohide Tamura (NAOJ)   Charlie Telesco (UF)

Links to published materials on this work are given below:

SPIE (Packham et al. 2007)

AAS poster abstract (Packham et al. 2007)