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From picometers to kilometer

How small things can you see how far? When combining optical telemetry with spectroscopy we are able to retrieve microscopic information from far distances kilometers away. We could call this remote microscopy. Examples include how electron shells in remote gasses are deformed by collisions and pressure, this occurs at the picometer scale. On the nanometer scale we can determine molecular species remotely. This can be accomplished, e.g., by absorption lines such as the one from oxygen at 760 nm or by fluorescence emission such as that from Chlorophyll around 735 nm. From depolarization and liquid water absorption we can also remotely sense information in the micrometer range. This could for instance be cell sizes in biological tissue or surface texture such as fur and scales on a remote insect. In all cases, for clever detection schemes and interpretation profound spectroscopic knowledge on light-sample interaction is required. Our expertise spans from atomic physics and molecular spectroscopy to bio photonics and photomigration in biological tissue. Many remote techniques are supported by laboratory measurements with as spectroscopy, hyper spectral imaging, goniometry and polarimetry. We also apply advanced multivariate statistics and chemometrics to reach conclusions when necessary.