BackForwardInstrument:  GOLD 

Instrument details
Acronym GOLD
Full name Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk
Purpose Space weather of the thermosphere and ionosphere
Short description Far-UV imaging spectrometer. Spectral range 132-162, spectral resolution 0.2 nm for temperature and 0.4 nm for composition. Two identical and independent optical channels.
Background Instrument hosted on a commercial telecommunication satellite (SES-14)
Scanning Technique Full Earth's disk scanned, as well as the limb. Also, star occultation
Resolution 50 km
Coverage / Cycle Earth's disk as from GEO at 30 min rate
Mass 37 kg Power 72 W Data Rate 6 Mbps

 

Providing Agency NASA
Instrument Maturity Backed by strong heritage
Utilization Period: 2018 to 2022
Last update: 2021-12-09
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 3
  • UV spectral imagery (e.g. GEO, HEO, MEO, LEO)
  • UV spectral imager [from GEO, HEO, MEO, LEO]
Mission objectives
Primary mission objectives
  • UV flux spectrum
  • UV 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
UV flux spectrum*1 - primaryNo specific limitation.Earth's limb observed, high spectral resolution
UV sky image*1 - primaryNo specific limitation.Earth's limb observed, spectrometry with high spatial resolution
Ionospheric plasma density5 - marginalNo specific limitation.UV imaging spectrometer measuring ionospheric plasma density in the Earth's limb
Electron Density5 - marginalNo specific limitation.UV spectrometry of the Earth's limb