Abstract
Ground calibration and evaluation of the Michelson Interferometer for Global High-resolution Thermospheric Imaging (MIGHTI) instrument was accomplished through a collaborative effort between the SDL calibration team and the NRL instrument team.
MIGHTI is one of the four instruments on the NASA Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON) heliophysics explorer mission. MIGHTI uses the Doppler Asymmetric Spatial Heterodyne (DASH) Spectroscopy techniques to derive thermospheric winds by measuring Doppler shifts of atomic oxygen airglow emission lines in the visible spectrum. Furthermore, it uses a photometric technique to derive thermospheric temperatures from the molecular oxygen A-band in the near infrared.
This paper presents an overview and results from the MIGHTI relative spectral calibration, which was performed at SDL in January 2016, as part of instrument thermal-vacuum testing. Unique features of the MIGHTI spectral calibration include: the combined high spectral resolution and spatial resolved characteristics of this imager, the long integration period and readout timing of the MIGHTI sensor, using a Michelson interferometer as the spectral calibration source, and coupling the calibration source through an integrating sphere to provide a full-aperture, full-field source. Data collection, processing and results are included in the presentation.
MIGHTI Spectral Calibration
Ground calibration and evaluation of the Michelson Interferometer for Global High-resolution Thermospheric Imaging (MIGHTI) instrument was accomplished through a collaborative effort between the SDL calibration team and the NRL instrument team.
MIGHTI is one of the four instruments on the NASA Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON) heliophysics explorer mission. MIGHTI uses the Doppler Asymmetric Spatial Heterodyne (DASH) Spectroscopy techniques to derive thermospheric winds by measuring Doppler shifts of atomic oxygen airglow emission lines in the visible spectrum. Furthermore, it uses a photometric technique to derive thermospheric temperatures from the molecular oxygen A-band in the near infrared.
This paper presents an overview and results from the MIGHTI relative spectral calibration, which was performed at SDL in January 2016, as part of instrument thermal-vacuum testing. Unique features of the MIGHTI spectral calibration include: the combined high spectral resolution and spatial resolved characteristics of this imager, the long integration period and readout timing of the MIGHTI sensor, using a Michelson interferometer as the spectral calibration source, and coupling the calibration source through an integrating sphere to provide a full-aperture, full-field source. Data collection, processing and results are included in the presentation.