Degradation-Free Spectrometers for Solar EUV Measurements: A Progress Report

Solar EUV observations will be made using two new degradation-free EUV spectrometers on a sounding rocket flight scheduled for Summer 2010. The two instruments, a rare gas photoionization-based Optics-Free Spectrometer (OFS) and a Dual Grating Spectrometer (DGS), are filter-free and optics-free. OFS can measure the solar EUV spectrum with a spectral resolution comparable to that of grating-based EUV spectrometers. The DGS is designed to provide solar irradiance at Lyman-alpha and He II to overlap EUV observations from SOHO/SEM and SDO/EVE. Electronic and mechanical designs for the flight prototype instruments and results of tests performed with the instruments in the laboratory are reported. The spectrometers are being developed and demonstrated as part of the Degradation Free Spectrometers (DFS) project under NASA’s Low Cost Access to Space (LCAS) program and are supported by NASA Grant NNX08BA12G.