A concave grating Wadsworth spectrometer designed to scan the UV limb of the earth was flown on a Defense Department meteorological satellite to obtain measurements of atmospheric emissions in the 85-395 microm wavelength range as a function height above the solid earth. The instrument field of view was 0.14 x 3.8 deg corresponding to 6 km in the vertical and 230 km in the horizontal at the limb. The scanning motion was controlled by a momentum compensated dc-torque motor mechanism that panned the line of sight across the limb corresponding to tangent altitudes of 80-480 km. A set of three photon counting detectors, each viewing a separate exit slit, provided simultaneous coverage of the wavelength bands of 85-120 nm (EUV), 110-163 nm (far UV), and 290-395 nm (UV) at a wavelength resolution of 0.4, 0.8, and 1.2 nm, respectively. A separate photometric channel isolated the atmospheric sodium doublet at 589.0-589.6 nm. The grating position and instrument view angle were controlled by digital circuitry operating on hardwired and uplinked command instructions. The operating modes included a variety of scanning and fixed wavelength and view angle operations. A description of the instrument and several examples of the data are presented. These include the dayglow emissions from thermospheric oxygen and nitrogen that form the basis of a thermospheric density determination, auroral enhancements observed in these emissions and in hydrogen Ly-alpha and nighttime sodium emissions.


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    Title :

    Satellite-borne limb scanning UV spectrometer for thermospheric remote sensing


    Additional title:

    Verwendung eines Satellitenspektrometers fuer die Abtastung der UV-Zone der Erde zur thermosphaerischen Fernabtastung


    Contributors:
    Pranke, J.B. (author) / Christensen, A.B. (author) / Morse, F.A. (author) / Hickman, D.R. (author) / Chater, W.T. (author) / Howey, C.K. (author) / Jones, D.A. (author)

    Published in:

    Applied Optics ; 21 , 21 ; 3941-3952


    Publication date :

    1982


    Size :

    12 Seiten, 12 Bilder, 6 Tabellen, 8 Quellen



    Type of media :

    Article (Journal)


    Type of material :

    Print


    Language :

    English






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