Wide-field auroral imager onboard the Fengyun satellite

Abstract

The newly launched Fengyun-3D (FY-3D) satellite carried a wide-field auroral imager (WAI) that was developed by Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CIOMP), which will provide a large field of view (FOV), high spatial resolution, and broadband ultraviolet images of the aurora and the ionosphere by imaging the N2 LBH bands of emissions. The WAI consists of two identical cameras, each with an FOV of 68° in the along-track direction and 10° in the cross-track direction. The two cameras are tilted relative to each other to cover a fan-shaped field of size 130° × 10°. Each camera consists of an unobstructed four-mirror anastigmatic optical system, a BaF2 filter, and a photon-counting imaging detector. The spatial resolution of WAI is ~10 km at the nadir point at a reference height of 110 km above the Earth’s surface. The sensitivity is >0.01 counts s−1 Rayleigh−1 pixel−1 (140–180 nm) for both cameras, which is sufficient for mapping the boundaries and the fine structures of the auroral oval during storms/substorms. Based on the tests and calibrations that were conducted prior to launch, the data processing algorithm includes photon signal decoding, geometric distortion correction, photometric correction, flat-field correction, line-of-sight projection and correction, and normalization between the two cameras. Preliminarily processed images are compared with DMSP SSUSI images. The agreement between the images that were captured by two instruments demonstrates that the WAI and the data processing algorithm operate normally and can provide high-quality scientific data for future studies on auroral dynamics.