A highly miniaturized satellite payload for the observation of temperatures in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere

A highly miniaturized limb sounder for the observation of faintemissions in the atmosphere is presented. The selected technology is aSpatial Heterodyne Spectrometer (SHS). The throughput of a SHS isorders of magnitude larger than of a conventional grating spectrometerof the same size. Its monolithic design makes it extremely robustagainst vibrations and shocks. It can be designed to deliver spectraat very high spectral resolution to resolve individual emission orabsorption lines, or even Doppler shifts to derive winds. The smallmass and low energy consumption makes SHS instruments particularlysuitable for the deployment on nano-satellites or as secondarypayloads on larger satellites.In this presentation we introduce an instrument design for the measurement of temperature in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere by observing the ro- vibrational structure of the O2 atmospheric band at 762 nm in limb viewing geometry. This instrument is suited to fly on a3-6 unit Cubesat or as a secondary payload on a larger satellite.To increase the horizontal resolution of the measurements, new observation strategies to operate such an instrument from an agile satellite platform are discussed.