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AFRL-VS-HA-TR-2004-1022 el ‘THE SOLAR MASS EJECTION IMAGER (SMEI) MISSION Bernard V. Jackson Andrew Buffington P. Paul Hick University of California, San Diego 9500 Gilman Drive LaJolta, CA 92093-0424 6 January 2004 Final Report i | APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE; DISTRIBUTION UNLIMITED ATR FORCE RESEARCH LABORATORY Space Vehicles Directorate 29 Randolph Rd AIR FORCE MATERIEL COMMAND Hanscom AFB, MA 01731-3010 BEST AVAILABLE COPY “This tochnical report has heen reviewed anil is approved for publication Signed! ‘Signed JANET JOHNSTON ROBERT A MORRIS Contact Manager Branch Chief ‘This document bas boon roviewod by the PSC Public Aflaics Oiliee and has been approved for release to the Natiomal Technical Information Service. 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This will assis! ua ia musing a ouzrent mailinglist. ‘Do not rerum copies ofthis cepor: unless contractual abligalioan ar nolives on a speuilic ocument require that it be returned, REPORT DOCUMENTATION PAGE Pe TCREPONTEATE DMV] | 2 REFORT TIPE ‘DATES EOVERES Fon Yap bemor-2008 Binal Ware: 3n73-00 co 01-05-04 EEA BETTE i CONTRACT NOWSER We solar Mave Fjection Imager (EXE) Miesio: pisgas 000.0029 ¥e, GRANT NUMBER TARR [ERROR RK = RoR ———] ERTS RE TAT SS baERETOTRT Fakir SORTER TE RT RTS SRST ROT Beg cig eae balan ase agen ahaa ERRORS Distribution Ualielled 0 SUPPLEMENTARY HOTES Photomaver instzaents ao nosrd the HELCOS spacecraft have show that tr fe teasible to imace the chongong gidbel electron coatent of the heliophese. Mtn thie coutract UCSD Wiel Sahonce the’ develapwant of = sacond-generalion heCieupheste Imager (all-aky\, and provide Gnigue softwere algorithas tor procanciag eho flight deta, that will be capsule of cbeaining belfospheric inwgee at higa spetiel a0 tomporsi wevolation from an S00 ion Barth orbic Uith these eohanceweats, the Grager wil provide @ global brightness sap of nearly the entire Bhyr once yor orbit, Tie ueliosgherie features to br iuaged include mage elect lara’ (evar the Sun these ‘ejuctions_of mlerivl are culled coroue! ecw ejections ox CHES), ateeanore and Shock wove coring fror the Sun. “Goecvetions fron tee inaccunene wil allow decaavel ation Of these structures fret the pevgpnctive wews of them aa tary pass Horch. "Bacacae of ts shility to provide thurs oaamerione in venreranl tian prior fo thelr avvival at garth, the Imager will be important for “apace woovker" forecacte of Earth's geomagnetic disturbances CORRE TORE Suneforeh Conrection - Coronal tans ejections - hetiospreric plasma - 30 tomagreviay - Bodivenl Iigat = gpaceborne optics! sastssar 5 GESURITY CLASSFIERTON GE: “FC LRITATIGR — 18 NUMBER oa, sal OF RESP ———] Deapemmmcr | orraces” |PMON J. Tohneton EAEPSRT |B ABETRRGT | TH PAE x a Te Rion EER proats HOSS this Se ase me Contents FIGURES, TABIE.. FORWARD ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 1, INTRODUCTION, 1 2. HISTORY OF SME] DESIGN AND DEVEL OPMINT. end 3, SMEI SIGNAL LEVELS AND DATA REQUIREMENTS. cereenrnrenenennnnd 8 9 4. SMEIDATA OPERATION AND ANALYSIS. 4 SMELData Accumula 42 SMEIData Analysis. “421 Individual Frame Condlvioning ~ Blot Piety, Cosmic Rays, and. Space Debris... MV 422 Flat Fiekéin sent . 423 Frame Registration Onto a Standard Grid 424 Sidereal Sky and Zodiacal Light Background Removal. 43° Hellospherle Plasma Brightness. 4A SMETData Products 5._ OTHER PHENONEMA OBSERVABLE BY SME. SAL Background Sidereal Siynats.. 5 Zotinel Light wad the Gogeseein 53 Comets. SA Auroral Light... 33 The Geocorona, 3.6 Ram Glove und Otler Spaceerafl-Pruuueed llumination, mM 8.7 Neur Farth Aateroils, sean 6. CONCLUSION. REFERENCES Appendis A. ‘AL. Dat Frame Conditioning. Al. Sky Map Construction ‘3. Sux Removal Appendix B... Bi, Data Fume Conditioning, 1B. image construction . BS. Galactic Background Subtraction, BA. Zodincal Background FIGURES 1. Titan Launch of SME 2. Coriolis Spacecraft at Vandenberg 3. Surface Brightness Versus Solar Elongation 4, Schematic of SMEI Baffle 5. Schematic of SMEI in Orbit 6, SMET Dara Frames and Compasite Sky Map 7. SMEI “Fisheye” Composite Sky Maps of a CME 8. Histogram of a Sky Map Portion 9, Twesolved SMEI Point Image ‘TABLE [Expected Signal Levels From Hetiepherie Strucauses Obsorved by SMEL Foreword ‘We have launched into near-Earth orbit Solar Mass Ejection Imager (SMED that is capable of measuring sunlight Thomson-scattered fom heliaspherieeleairans from elongations (0 as close as 18° wo greater than 90° [mm the Sun, SME is designed to observe time-varying heliospheric brightness of abjects such as coronal mass ejections, corotating structarcs and shock waves. The instrument evolved from the heliospheric imaging capability demonstrated by the zodiacal light pphotomcters of the Helios spacecraft. A near-Earth imager can provide up to throc days warning of the artival of a mass ejection from the Sun. In combination with other imaging instruments in ‘decp space, or alone by making some simple assumptions sboul the outward flow of the solkr wind, SMET can provide a threc-dimensional reconstruction of the surounding heliospheric density suvctures, Acknowledgements ‘Tho work of B.V. Jackson, P-P. Hick and A. Buffington was supported in part at UCSD by AFRL contract AF19628-00-C-0029, AFOSR contrast, AF#9620-01-1-0054, and NASA grant NAGS- 134543, D.F, Webb, T. Kuchar and D, Mizuno were supported in part by AF19628-00-C4073, ‘The work of S.J. Tappin was partinlly supported onder comtruct FST77SU2-WEOES to the University of Birmingham, Computational faciliticy at the University of Birmingham are supported by STARLINK. Figure 1. Viton H Taxnch off the Cortalis Spacervagi on 6 Jeunary 2093 Wisi the SHEP Instrument on Noard 1 10N INTRODUC ‘The Sclor Muss Hieotion imeger (SMET} {Eves er ai. 2003) sas Launches early on 6 January 2012 inl a San-synehrancin polar ocbit om Wacdecberg Air Force Tune (Higare 3. The Coviolis spsccoralt (Figare 2) has lwo instruments: an all sky imager. SMMf, amd a roctiag radiorwter instrament, Winedeo, intended to uisasure ocean wieds (Giver, 1999), SMEL (Keil et af, 1996: Jackson ef al, 1997, and tetecencos therein) is desighsd to map lo scale variations in Reljospheri¢ eleclvon dctitics From Earth ambit by observing ‘Inomsen- Sculiered scnlighs fiom within The heligspherie volume. Conccived as an allsky soronageaph Garson of af. 19893 SMTA views the qutwardl Mos of density stmciures inthe solr aimospher, ‘These incluks sil: ewsucal mass ejections (CMS). corctainw auructares (sircumers), and ocher solit wind density entancements, or depledons sich a the density visiutions behind stuck aves, SMT is otimarily intended to demonstate the leasbitity of fotecasting the arrivals ot these heliospherie. structures al Tuc: these nor-uily Iuke co to Eve chy ws travel AT? from ihe San, To achiev this, SMEL is operate] as a uilfeccntial photometer with umprevedented vecuracy. ‘The instrainent may bo ecgardl sm w avecesier Io the Zodlaca Lrgbt phtameters Figure 2. Caviolts Spsecragt Priog io Wiaebinborg lamvh, Three Bnstrament Comeva Bales (Corted in red} ave Seen om te Leeooe Hestion of the Spaceccaph {Leinest ef wf. 199) af nc bis Hefioe spazeevat and the Leligupheric remote sensing espabiily emorasinod ly tig Instuurrens Uaskson, 19853. Such analyses male use of da ie so wind fata Toon the vieanity of the rge™ und exteed these o3socvatiens 1o the sumoanding eusieonnen fed back to ths Sim, Anaiynen af Helios dats: Uakson and Thick, 2002) saow tha the three- aiznersical locity ot these beliospRee <onaly structntes can be delemvined using lemogrsphit: madeting cehniques that esate thie distance ie cach dipcetion by using their li {creartengement aad chenage in rixhiness caused by outward uoler snd Tos, ‘This anicle essere the dsnign nal mission cocsidstwivns inhevenl ia the coustuciiin and ogesh ef the SMT ssuraneat, Section 2 35 a history of Ge SMEL icstecmen! cevigi ond sloveloprien, Sevtica 3 gives the signal levels expected Isoer vatious heliesphorie siuctines a8 rived from Hetios spaceceaft photometer data and first-principle analyses, Scction 4 describes the date handhng analysis designed and being implemented to deal with SMET dats, Section 5 describes a varicty of background light sourcos that must either be removed or altematively van be sciomtfically studied by SMEL Conclusions are presented in the Isat section, 2, HISTORY OF SMEI DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT Global romote sensing af hehospheric structures has existed for a Tong time using ground-haned metic ralia wave interplanetary scintillation (PS) analyses. The technique pioneered io Cambridge, UK, by A. Hewish and bis associates (Hewish, Scott and Wills, 1964) shows that dats from a single lange phased away measure different heliospheric structures as they meve outward from the Sun (Gapper et af., 1982). The most complete IPS micasurements of this type have been Interprctod to show that CME are uot a dominant part of the interplancticy medium and that corekating processes provide a more fundamental role in ongunizing heliospheric sunotare Glewish und Brave, 1986). In the early 1970s researchers af the University of Califomia at San Diego used a system of three scintillation arrays (Coles and Kautman, 1978) to derive solar wind ia by Watching (he intensity scintillation pastem cross the surface of the Earth, These srudies and observations are now being pursued by the STELab facility in Japan (Kojima and Kekinum, 1990), and help provide ground-«ruth confirmation when compared with SMEL remote sensing observations, to locate and define heliaspherte structures velocit ‘The relationship between scintillation infensity and the amount of small-scale density inhomogonetics in the solar wind har bocn explored in numerous journal articles (Coles and Kaufmann, 1978; Ananthukrishnun, Coles and Kaufman, 1980). ‘This relationship depends on the radio frequency uscd, radio soutee sizes, their numbers and placement refative tothe Sun, and the smumbere and line-of-sight Ioeations of the small-scale (10-200 kan) inhomogeneities. Although scintillation intensity is usually positively correlated to heliospheric bulk density Garger scintillation levels indicate greater densities) the relationship fs not Yinew. Thus, it ia difficute and less direct ro determine tho more fundemental beliowpheric bulk density parameder, and whether CMEs dominate the inner heliosphere, using TPS data With this incentive for monitoring heliospheric density structure in a mone direce way than the LPS technique, the idea ‘us initsted for x coronagrapl that measures to lorge solar elongations (solar angufar distances) in Thomnsen-seattered Tight, ‘The corona and heliasphere are optically thin to visible light outward from within «few minutes of ae of the solar im, For ground-buiod observations mesopheric air glow is several factors of fem larger than beliospherie signals af even the darkest sites and is morded on angular scales down lou few degrees anu with variations on sime scales less than an hour (Garcia, Taylor and Kelley, 1997; James ef af ,1997). AS a conscqucnce, mesospheric air glow effectively limits gronsd- ‘basod Thomason ecattoring obscrvations to elongations within a tex solar adil of the Sum, even ‘with the best bsarvations ublained by high-flying aircraft during solar eclipses (Chapman, 1979) ‘Thus, dhe only prvctca! location for an instrament such 3s SMEL sin space. ‘The twin Helios spacecraft, launched in December 1974 (etios 1) and January 1976 (Helios 2), each contained thice zodlacal-light phowometers which were intended ta remotely measure the distribution of dost in Uve inuelanetory mediwor berween the Sun and the Earth (Leinert et a,