BackForwardInstrument:  EUV 

Instrument details
Acronym EUV
Full name Extreme Ultraviolet Imager
Purpose To detect solar EUV photons resonantly scattered by singly ionized helium in the plasmasphere, the torus of cold dense plasma surrounding the Earth in the inner magnetosphere
Short description The imager consists of three identical sensor heads mounted one above the other in a common bracket; a common electronics module. Each sensor head has a FOV of 30º, the three sensors are tilted so that their FOVs overlap, giving the imager a fan-shaped IFOV of 30º by 84º. The instrument operates at the wavelength of 30.4 nm with a bandpass of 5 nm
Background New development
Scanning Technique Volumetric exploration of the magnetosphere as the satellite moves along the polar Highly Eliptical Orbit. With each rotation of the S/C, the imager completes a 360º sweep of the sky, resulting in a total field of view of 84º by 360º
Resolution 0.6º at apogee, corresponding to 640 km at the plasmasphere height
Coverage / Cycle Full interplanetary space including the magnetosphere at about 1 min intervals
Mass 15.6 kg Power 15.5 W Data Rate

 

Providing Agency NASA
Instrument Maturity Flown on an R&D satellite
Utilization Period: 2000 to 2005
Last update: 2017-05-21
Detailed characteristics
Satellites this instrument is flying on

Note: a red tag indicates satellites no longer operational, a green tag indicates operational satellites, a blue tag indicates future satellites

Instrument classification
  • Solar and space environment monitors
  • Space radiometer or spectrometer
WIGOS Subcomponents
  • Subcomponent 2
  • Solar magnetograph, solar EUV/X-ray imagery and EUV/X-ray irradiance, both on the Earth-Sun line and off the Earth-Sun line
  • Solar EUV spectrometer [from solar orbit, ecliptic, L5]
  • Solar EUV imager [from solar orbit, ecliptic, L5]
Mission objectives
Primary mission objectives
  • EUV flux
  • EUV sky image
Evaluation of Measurements

The following list indicates which measurements can typically be retrieved from this category of instrument. To see a full Gap Analysis by Variable, click on the respective variable.

Note: table can be sorted by clicking on the column headers
Note: * Primary mission objective.
VariableRelevance for measuring this variableOperational limitationsExplanation
EUV flux*4 - fairNo specific limitation.Interplanetary space viewing, moderate dynamic range
EUV sky image*3 - highNo specific limitation.Interplanetary space viewing, high spatial resolution
Heliospheric image3 - highNo specific limitation.Interplanetary space viewing in the EUV band (10-121.6 nm)