Investigating atmospheric waves
MATS (Mesospheric Airglow/Aerosol Tomography and Spectroscopy) is an upcoming Swedish satellite mission designed to investigate atmospheric waves. It will do so by imaging variation in the light emitted by oxygen molecules at 100 km, as well as structures in the highest clouds in our atmosphere, the so-called noctilucent clouds, which form around 80 km.
By performing a tomographic analysis of
these images, 3D reconstruction of these waves can be done. This will allow the
MATS mission to provide the first global map of the properties of atmospheric
waves in all spatial dimensions.
The MATS mission is based on the
development of the InnoSat spacecraft concept. The InnoSat spacecraft is a
small, capable and low-cost platform intended for a range of scientific research
missions in Low Earth Orbit. It is designed to fit within a piggyback launch
envelope, and has a mass of roughly 50 kg mass and a size of 60×70×85 cm. The
satellite is being developed by OHB Sweden, ÅAC Microtec, Department of
Meteorology (MISU) at Stockholm University, Department of Earth and Space
Sciences at Chalmers, Space and Plasma Physics Group at KTH and Omnisys
Instruments. The mission is funded by the Swedish National Space Agency (SNSA).
The so-called noctilucent clouds that MATS will study.
MATS Instrument
The MATS satellite is the first satellite based on the InnoSat platform
will also serve as a pilot mission in an intended programme of small, low-cost
research satellites funded by the Swedish National Space Agency (SNSA). The 50
kg micro satellite is planned to be launched in 2019 as an auxiliary payload
into a 600 km dawn/dusk circular sun-synchronous orbit. There are two science
instruments on board: the limb imager and the nadir imager.
In order to capture 3D wave structures in the MLT,
MATS is designed to measure two phenomena occurring in the MLT region.
Noctilucent clouds and atmospheric airglow from the Oxygen A-Band. This will be
achieved by imaging the limb of the atmosphere at six different wavelengths;
two in UV (between 270-300 nm) and four in IR (760-780 nm). The two UV channels
will give information on small scale structures using solar light scattered of
NLCs, while the IR channels provide larger scale structures, as well as
atmospheric temperatures by measuring the emission from photochemically exited
oxygen molecules.
To
perform the limb imaging, an off-axis 3 mirror telescope based on free-form
mirrors is used. The limb of the atmosphere is imaged onto the 6 CCD channels,
where wavelength separation is achieved using a combination of dichroic beam
splitters, and narrowband filters. The image detection is based on advanced CCD
sensors with readout electronics that allows for flexible pixel binning and
image processing. Telescope optics and interior instrument setup are carefully
designed to suppress stray light effects. Of particular importance is the
layout of the limb baffle system that is optimized by making use of the entire
available length of the InnoSat platform.
MATS Platform
The MATS mission is based on the development of the InnoSat spacecraft
concept. The InnoSat spacecraft is a small, capable and low-cost platform
intended for a range of scientific research missions in Low Earth Orbit. It is
designed to fit within a piggyback launch envelope, that is roughly 50 kg mass
and 70×60×85 cm size, and to provide high performances in terms of pointing,
power and data downlink.
The InnoSat Platform has been designed to maximize the use of the launcher
volume available for a piggyback launch. The main drivers behind this are
simply the power and volume needed for the payload. A key factor of being able
to meet those demands is to baseline a dawn/dusk orbit or go to a sun pointing
mode. Having the sun from one side reduces the amount of necessary solar panels
in different directions, which allows for greater flexibility for the payload
accommodation. All platform avionics will be accommodated into one module,
called the Service Module. This module has a launch vehicle adapter on one side
and a payload interface on the other side.
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