Global auroral imaging instrumentation for the Dynamics Explorer Mission
Abstract
The instrumentation for gaining global images of the auroral oval from the high altitude spacecraft of the Dynamics Explorer Mission is described. Three spin scan auroral imaging (SAI) photometers are expected to be able to effectively view the dim emissions from the Earth in the presence of strong stray light sources near their fields of view along the sunlit portion of the spacecraft orbit. A special optical design which includes an off axis parabolic mirror as the focusing element and super reflecting mirror surfaces is used to minimize the effects of stray light. The rotation of the spacecraft and an instrument scanning mirror provide the two dimensional array of pixels comprising a image frame. The full width of the fields of view of the photometers corresponding to a single pixel is 0.29 deg. The angular dimensions of a typical full frame are 30 deg x 30 deg and span 1.44 x 10,000 pixels. The images from all three photometers are telemetered simultaneously with a repetition rate that can vary from about 3 t0 12 minutes.
- Publication:
-
Unknown
- Pub Date:
- January 1981
- Bibcode:
- 1981gaii.rept.....F
- Keywords:
-
- Auroras;
- Images;
- Imaging Techniques;
- Optical Equipment;
- Photometers;
- Auroral Spectroscopy;
- Explorer Satellites;
- Optical Measuring Instruments;
- Spectrum Analysis;
- Geophysics