Ground-based instrument in support of the ORIGIN sounding rocket experiment

The ORIGIN sounding rocket project addresses the Earth´s nightglow, a global emission layer at atmospheric altitudes 80-110 km.

An important part of the project, as stated in the original ORIGIN proposal, is ground-based instrumentation to support the launch campaign at Esrange Space Center.

The central science goal of ORIGIN is to study the physical and chemical mechanisms that generate nightglow emissions, including their relationship to atmospheric composition and background conditions.

This in turn is of large importance for utilizing nightglow emissions in ground-based and satellite-based remote sensing.Optical measurements from the rocket payload will address altitude profiles of selected nightglow emissions. For the scientific analysis, it is essential to obtain long-term measurements of detailed spectra from the ground.

MISU has been in contact with several research groups to identify what additional external spectrograph is most suited to take to the campaign.

The spectrograph should monitor nightglow and auroral emissions, primarily in the wavelength range 650-850 nm, thus measuring oxygen and hydroxyl nightglow features as a complement to the rocket-borne photometers.

The spectrograph measurement also serves as input to background correction (aurora and continuum) for the photometers, and for monitoring the nightglow and auroral emissions in order to evaluate launch conditions during countdown.We have been given the opportunity to have a ground-based spectrograph from the University of Massachusetts in Lowell (UML), USA, on site at Esrange Space Center to support the ORIGIN sounding rocket campaign.

In order to make the spectrograph optimal for the ORIGIN experiment, the entrance slits need modification and a new filter mosaic needs to be bought and mounted in the instrument. The mosaic provides of collection of several interference filters with different narrow passbands. These select the airglow and auroral spectral regions needed for ORIGIN.

With this application we ask for funding to pay for the modification including the new optimized filter mosaic, and the transfer of the instrument from UML to Esrange Space Center.