Aurio - a Proposal for Flying AN Auroral Imaging Observatory on the Polar Platform in the Space Station/columbus Programme

It is proposed to fly high resolution auroral imaging instruments and particle spectrometers on the Columbus Polar Platform (PPF). A set of UV and X-ray imagers with wide field of view (horizon to horizon) will map the large scale (semiglobal) features of the aurora at day and night with fairly high spatial and temporal resolution. A set of visible and X-ray imagers and imaging spectrographs in visible and UV range with narrow field (NF) of view will give images with very high spatial resolution (better than 1 km and a few km respectively for optical and X-ray imagers) and a time resolution of 1 sec. The NF-imagers will be mounted on a pointable instrument pedestal to be operated in different modes. Particle spectrometers will cover electrons and ions over a wide energy range, and with high time resolution (10 ms). It is also desireable to fly a magnetometer. The particle and field instruments should be integrated in a separate package mounted on a boom protruding at least 10 m from the PPF, to minimize the contamination from the PPF environment.