UVPI Imaging from the LACE Satellite: The Starbird Rocket Plume

The Starbird rocket provides the second demonstration of the ability of the Ultraviolet Plume Instrument (UVPI) to observe missiles in flight above the atmosphere. The Starbird was launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on 18 December 1990. The UVPI is a small, plume-tracking instrument f...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Smathers, H W, Horan, D M, Cardon, J G, Malaret, E R, Perez, L
Format: Report
Language:English
Subjects:
ALTITUDE
ARTIFICIAL SATELLITES
ATMOSPHERES
ATMOSPHERICS
CAMERAS
CHARGE COUPLED DEVICES
Combustion and Ignition
COMPENSATION
CONTOURS
FILTERS
GUIDED MISSILES
IMAGE INTENSIFIERS(ELECTRONICS)
INTENSITY
LACE(LOW POWER ATMOSPHERIC COMPENSATION EXPERIMENT)
LOW POWER
MISSILE TRACKING
NAVAL RESEARCH
Optics
ORBUS ROCKET MOTORS
PLUMES
POWER
RADIANCE
ROCKET ENGINES
ROCKETS
SPECTRAL
STARBIRD
TRACKING
Ultraviolet Detection and Detectors
ULTRAVIOLET DETECTORS
UVPI(ULTRAVIOLET PLUME INSTRUMENT)
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Summary:The Starbird rocket provides the second demonstration of the ability of the Ultraviolet Plume Instrument (UVPI) to observe missiles in flight above the atmosphere. The Starbird was launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on 18 December 1990. The UVPI is a small, plume-tracking instrument flown on the Naval Research Laboratory's Low-power Atmospheric Compensation Experiment (LACE) satellite, launched in February 1990. The two cameras of the instrument, a tracker and a plume camera, use filters, image intensifiers, and CCD detectors to observe sources in the ultraviolet. The plume camera has a narrow field of view, 0.180 deg by 0.135 deg, and observes sources through any of the four filters with passbands of 195 to 295 nm, 200 to 300 nm, 235 to 350 nm, and 300 to 320 nm. The Starbird third and fourth stages, both of which used identical Orbus rocket motors, reached 90-km altitude and were successfully detected and tracked by the UVPI from a range of 596 to 483 km. The spectral radiance and intensities of the missile plumes were extracted from these images and made into contour plots. Spatial, Prepared in collaboration with Applied Coherent Technology, Corp., Herndon, VA, Allied Signal Technical Services Corp., Alexandria, VA, Research Support Instruments, Alexandria, VA and Star Technologies Corp., Great Falls, VA.