Michael L. Lampton

Far Ultraviolet Imaging from the Image Spacecraft: 1. System Design

Direct imaging of the magnetosphere by the IMAGE spacecraft will be supplemented by observation of the global aurora, the footprint of magnetospheric regions. To assure the simultaneity of these observations and the measurement of the magnetospheric background neutral gas density, the IMAGE satellite instrument complement includes three Far Ultraviolet (FUV) instruments. In the wavelength region 120-190 nm, a downward-viewing auroral imager is only minimally contaminated by sunlight, scattered from clouds and ground, and radiance of the aurora observed in a nadir viewing geometry can be observed in the presence of the high-latitude dayglow. The Wideband Imaging Camera (WIC) will provide broad band ultraviolet images of the aurora for maximum spatial and temporal resolution by imaging the LBH N2 bands of the aurora. The Spectrographic Imager (SI), a monochromatic imager, will image different types of aurora, filtered by wavelength. By measuring the Doppler-shifted Ly-α, the proton-induced component of the aurora will be imaged separately. Finally, the GEO instrument will observe the distribution of the geocoronal emission, which is a measure of the neutral background density source for charge exchange in the magnetosphere. The FUV instrument complement looks radially outward from the rotating IMAGE satellite and, therefore, it spends only a short time observing the aurora and the Earth during each spin. Detailed descriptions of the WIC, SI, GEO, and their individual performance validations are discussed in companion papers. This paper summarizes the system requirements and system design approach taken to satisfy the science requirements. One primary requirement is to maximize photon collection efficiency and use efficiently the short time available for exposures. The FUV auroral imagers WIC and SI both have wide fields of view and take data continuously as the auroral region proceeds through the field of view. To minimize data volume, multiple images are taken and electronically co-added by suitably shifting each image to compensate for the spacecraft rotation. In order to minimize resolution loss, the images have to be distortion-corrected in real time for both WIC and SI prior to co-adding. The distortion correction is accomplished using high speed look up tables that are pre-generated by least square fitting to polynomial functions by the on-orbit processor. The instruments were calibrated individually while on stationery platforms, mostly in vacuum chambers as described in the companion papers. Extensive ground-based testing was performed with visible and near UV simulators mounted on a rotating platform to estimate their on-orbit performance. The predicted instrument system performance is summarized and some of the preliminary data formats are shown.

Far ultraviolet imaging from the IMAGE spacecraft. 2. Wideband FUV imaging

The Far Ultraviolet Wideband Imaging Camera (WIC) complements the magnetospheric images taken by the IMAGE satellite instruments with simultaneous global maps of the terrestrial aurora. Thus, a primary requirement of WIC is to image the total intensity of the aurora in wavelength regions most representative of the auroral source and least contaminated by dayglow, have sufficient field of view to cover the entire polar region from spacecraft apogee and have resolution that is sufficient to resolve auroras on a scale of 1 to 2 latitude degrees. The instrument is sensitive in the spectral region from 140–190 nm. The WIC is mounted on the rotating IMAGE spacecraft viewing radially outward and has a field of view of 17° in the direction parallel to the spacecraft spin axis. Its field of view is 30° in the direction perpendicular to the spin axis, although only a 17°×17° image of the Earth is recorded. The optics was an all-reflective, inverted Cassegrain Burch camera using concentric optics with a small convex primary and a large concave secondary mirror. The mirrors were coated by a special multi-layer coating, which has low reflectivity in the visible and near UV region. The detector consists of a MCP-intensified CCD. The MCP is curved to accommodate the focal surface of the concentric optics. The phosphor of the image intensifier is deposited on a concave fiberoptic window, which is then coupled to the CCD with a fiberoptic taper. The camera head operates in a fast frame transfer mode with the CCD being read approximately 30 full frames (512×256 pixel) per second with an exposure time of 0.033 s. The image motion due to the satellite spin is minimal during such a short exposure. Each image is electronically distortion corrected using the look up table scheme. An offset is added to each memory address that is proportional to the image shift due to satellite rotation, and the charge signal is digitally summed in memory. On orbit, approximately 300 frames will be added to produce one WIC image in memory. The advantage of the electronic motion compensation and distortion correction is that it is extremely flexible, permitting several kinds of corrections including motions parallel and perpendicular to the predicted axis of rotation. The instrument was calibrated by applying ultraviolet light through a vacuum monochromator and measuring the absolute responsivity of the instrument. To obtain the data for the distortion look up table, the camera was turned through various angles and the input angles corresponding to a pixel matrix were recorded. It was found that the spectral response peaked at 150 nm and fell off in either direction. The equivalent aperture of the camera, including mirror reflectivities and effective photocathode quantum efficiency, is about 0.04 cm2. Thus, a 100 Rayleigh aurora is expected to produce 23 equivalent counts per pixel per 10 s exposure at the peak of instrument response.

First medium energy neutral atom (MENA) Images of Earth's magnetosphere during substorm and storm-time

InitialENA images obtained with the MENA imager on the IMAGE observatory show that ENAs ema- nating from Earths magnetosphere at least crudely track both Dst and Kp. Images obtained during the storm of August 12, 2000, clearly show strong ring current asymme- try during storm main phase and early recovery phase, and a high degree of symmetry during the late recovery phase. Thus, these images establish the existence of both partial and complete ring currents during the same storm. Further, they suggest that ring current loss through the day side mag- netopause dominates other loss processes during storm main phase and early recovery phase.

Damping-undamping strategies for the Levenberg-Marquardt nonlinear least-squares method

The speed of the Levenberg–Marquardt (LM) nonlinear iterative least-squares method depends upon the choice of damping strategy when the fitted parameters are highly correlated. Additive damping with small damping increments and large damping decrements permits LM to efficiently solve difficult problems, including those that otherwise cause stagnation.

Continuous-readout extreme-ultraviolet airglow spectrometer

A satellite-borne extreme-ultraviolet airglow spectrometer is described covering the 275-1420-A range with 8-A resolution. The spectrometer is of near normal incidence Rowland circle design and employs a holographically ruled concave grating. The detector is a microchannel plate with resistive anode providing a continuous readout of any 650-A ground-commandable subset of the total bandpass. This simultaneous wide spectral coverage results in a factor of 80 increase in sensitivity over a fixed exit slit design of equivalent resolution.

Global observations of proton and electron auroras in a substorm

This is the first report of a substorm observed by the IMAGE FUV instruments permitting global observations of electron and proton produced auroras. On the 28th of June 2000 at 1956 UT in the pre-substorm phase at early evening local time the proton aurora was equatorward of the electron precipitation and near midnight they were collocated. There was bright electron and proton aurora in the post midday afternoon side. The sudden brightening of the aurora at substorm onset near midnight is seen in the electrons only although there are protons present at this location. During the expansive phase both the electrons and protons expand poleward. The electron aurora forms a bright surge at the poleward boundary while the protons just show diffuse spreading. The peak intensity of the protons did not change substantially during the entire event. The proton aurora is brighter on the dusk while the electron aurora on the dawn side. As the electron surge expands poleward it leaves the protons behind. The electrons form a discrete auroral feature near the aurora-polar cap boundary, which is devoid of substantial energetic (>1 keV) proton precipitation. The presence of precipitating protons at the point where the initial brightening is seen shows that substorms are initiated on closed field lines.

Ultraviolet quantum detection efficiency of potassium bromide as an opaque photocathode applied to microchannel plates

We have measured the quantum detection efficiency (QDE) of potassium bromide as a photocathode applied directly to the surface of a microchannel plate over the 250-1600A wavelength range. The contributions of the photocathode material in the channels and on the interchannel web to the QDE have been determined. Two broad peaks in the QDE centered at ~450 and ~1050 A are apparent, the former with ~50% peak QDE and the latter with ~40% peak QDE. The photoelectric threshold is observed at ~1600 A, and there is a narrow QDE minimum at ~750 A which correlates with 2x the band gap energy for KBr. The angular variation of the QDE from 0 to 40 degrees to the channel axis has also been examined. The stability of KBr with time is shown to be good with no significant degradation of QDE at wavelengths below 1216 A over a 15-day period in air.

The Extreme-Ultraviolet Emission in the Coma Cluster of Galaxies and the Underlying Source of this Radiation

Observations with the Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer (EUVE) have shown the Coma Cluster to be a source of EUV emission in excess of that produced by X-ray gas in the cluster. We have reexamined the EUVE data on this cluster in an attempt to obtain clues as to the origin of this emission. We find two important new results. First, the ratio between the azimuthally averaged EUV excess emission and the ROSAT hard X-ray flux is constant as a function of distance from the cluster center outward. Second, a correlation analysis between the EUV excess emission and the X-ray emission shows that on a detailed level the EUV excess is spatially closely related to the X-ray emission. These findings contradict previous suggestions as to the underlying source of the diffuse EUV emission in Coma and provide important information in regard to the true source of this emission. We propose a new explanation for the source of this emission: inverse Compton scattering of microwave background photons by secondary electrons and positrons. We explore this possibility in some detail and show that it is consistent with all of the available observational evidence. The parent cosmic-ray protons may have been produced by any of a number of sources, including supernovae, active galaxies, galactic winds, and cluster formation shocks, but we believe that the most likely source is cluster formation shocks. If the EUV emission in the Coma Cluster is, in fact, the result of secondary electrons, this may be the only direct evidence for secondary electrons in the intracluster medium of a cluster of galaxies, since recent work suggests that secondary electrons may not be the cause of radio halos.

A pulsing X-ray source in Circinus

Circinus pulsating X ray source spectrum analysis, considering bremsstrahlung and black body models

Discovery and imaging of a Galactic cirrus cloud with the far ultraviolet space telescope

We present new far-ultraviolet (1400-1800 A) data concerning a Galactic cirrus cloud G251.2+73.3 near the north Galactic pole obtained with the space-borne imaging telescope FAUST (Far Ultraviolet Space Telescope). We obtain a good correlation between the far-ultraviolet (FUV) and IRAS 100 micrometers surface brightnesses, their relation being I(sub FUV) = (128 +/- 3) I(sub 100 micrometers) - (264 +/- 9), where the I(sub FUV) flux is given in units of photon/s/sq cm/A/sr and I(sub 100 micrometers) in MJy/sr. Using uvbyH-beta photometry, we get a distance of 120 pc and a visual extinction in the center of the cloud of 0.39 mag corresponding to an extinction of 1.0 mag at 1565 A. We have performed a multiple scattering calculation for the scattered light using the Monte Carlo method. These calculations provide restrictions on the FUV scattering properties of the interstellar dust.