Best Instruments = Best Data = Best Results

   With climate change on everyone's minds, understanding the radiative properties of clouds has never been more important. While satellites continue to improve and scan the Earth's clouds, in situ microphysical cloud probes are needed to verify satellite retrievals as well as answer the questions satellites are incapable of responding to. It has never been more important to have the right tools to make accurate measurements in the field.

   Looking to the future SPEC believes the ultimate future of atmospheric research will rely heavily on unmanned aerial vehicles, UAVs; that's why we are designing and building instruments to be installed on them or using artificial intelligence programming so they perform optimally without an onboard operator. Whether your needs are for equipping a research aircraft, a UAV, or a research icing tunnel SPEC instruments will do the task.

    Founded in 1979, SPEC has been involved with the design, fabrication, and installation of innovative instruments on research aircraft for over twenty-five years. SPEC has designed and built sensors and data acquisition systems for universities, institutes, and government agencies, both domestic and international. SPEC has and continues to provide the atmospheric science community with valuable research tools. SPEC has been featured in the Boulder County Business Journal. In May 2006 our new Micro-CPI was profiled in NASA's Tech Briefs. Recently SPEC's President and CEO was quoted in the New York Times, regarding snowflake research.

    With research and analysis funding coming almost entirely from government contracts, SPEC has taken to the skies to record in situ cloud data, flying a state-of-the-art Learjet 25 research aircraft, as well as participating in major research projects around the world, including the South Pole, the Cape Verde Islands off the coast of Africa, and Costa Rica. The results of our research are often published in journal publications.

  SPEC is highly competitive in being awarded contracts. Since 1988, the company has won 16 Phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) awards, 11 Phase II SBIR awards, and 14 National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and National Science Foundation (NSF) research grants.

   SPEC's staff can equip your research institution or university with the instruments, software, and scientific guidance you need to further your research goals. We'd love to add you to our customer list. Please contact us with any questions you may have.