Special Sensor Ultraviolet Limb Imager: an ionospheric and neutral density profiler for the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program satellites

The Naval Research Laboratory is developing a series of far-and extreme-ultraviolet spectrographs (800 to 1,700 [angstrom]) to measure altitude profiles of the ionospheric and thermospheric airglow from the US Air Force Defense Meteorological Satellite Program's Block 5D3 satellites. These spec...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Optical Engineering 1994-02, Vol.33 (2), p.423-429
Main Authors: McCoy, Robert P, Dymond, Kenneth F, Fritz, Gilbert G, Thonnard, Stefan E, Meier, Robert R, Regeon, Paul A
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
661320 - Auroral, Ionospheric, & Magnetospheric Phenomena- (1992-)
AIRGLOW
CHARGED PARTICLES
CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSICS
DESIGN
EARTH ATMOSPHERE
ELECTRON DENSITY
ELECTRON TEMPERATURE
IONOSPHERE
IONS
MEASURING INSTRUMENTS
OXYGEN IONS
PLANETARY IONOSPHERES
REMOTE SENSING
SPECTRA
THERMOSPHERE
ULTRAVIOLET SPECTRA
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Summary:The Naval Research Laboratory is developing a series of far-and extreme-ultraviolet spectrographs (800 to 1,700 [angstrom]) to measure altitude profiles of the ionospheric and thermospheric airglow from the US Air Force Defense Meteorological Satellite Program's Block 5D3 satellites. These spectrographs, which comprise the Special Sensor Ultraviolet Limb Imager (SSULI), use a near-Wadsworth optical configuration with a mechanical grid collimator, concave grating, and linear array detector. To image the limb, SSULI employs a rotating planar SiC mirror that sweeps the field of view perpendicular to the limb of the Earth. The detector is windowless and uses an o-ring sealed door to protect the CsI photocathode from exposure prior to insertion in orbit. The altitude distribution of the airglow measured by the SSULI sensors will be used to infer the altitude distributions of electrons and neutral species. At night, electron densities will be determined by measurement of ion recombination nightglow. Daytime electron densities will be obtained from measurements of multiple resonant scattering of O[sup +] 834-[angstrom] radiation produced primarily by photoionization excitation of atomic oxygen. Dayside neutral densities and temperature will be inferred from the measurement of dayglow emissions from N[sub 2] and O produced by photoelectron impact excitation.
ISSN:0091-3286
1560-2303
DOI:10.1117/12.155904