SOFIA, the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, is a joint project between NASA and the German Aerospace Center DLR to provide infrared and sub-millimeter observing capabilities to the worldwide astronomical community. With a wide range of instruments that cover both imaging and spectroscopy, SOFIA has produced unique scientific results that could not be obtained with a ground-based facility. In the coming decade, SOFIA will be a critical complement to the other major facilities for astronomical research, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) by filling in the otherwise unobservable wavelength range of 30–300 μm. SOFIA provides a wide range of instrumentation, and this paper will describe some of the new capabilities in heterodyne spectroscopy, direct detection spectroscopy, and polarimetry.

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Harold W. Yorke, Erick T. Young, and Eric E. Becklin, "SOFIA in the era of JWST and ALMA," Proc. SPIE 10700, Ground-based and Airborne Telescopes VII, 107000E (Presented at SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation: June 11, 2018; Published: 6 July 2018); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2314222.