Small UV imager for Heliophysics science investigations

• Many advances in space science have originated with innovations in remote sensing and imaging technologies. Several of these innovations have been implemented by NASA science missions over the years, particularly in Heliophysics. Remote sensing of Earth and its space environment at ultraviolet wavelengths continues to support Heliophysics science missions. • Imaging of Earth's space environment has provided an approach to address specific science questions pertaining to the variability of the space environment and the coupling of energy and momentum between the different plasma regimes around Earth, and to the neutral atmosphere. Advances in these areas are still necessary to develop understanding of our space environment, and provide necessary capability for Space Weather nowcasting and prediction. • HPD's goals, described in the NASA Science Plan, are met by science missions in both the Solar-Terrestrial Physics and Living with a Star Programs that will all likely benefit from and require the implementation of remote UV imaging. Early development work in smaller optics and detectors will give those missions more options to achieve a broader set of science goals, using low-complexity, compact imagers while maintaining good technical margins. • There have been many NASA missions that have implemented UV imagers (TIMED, POLAR, IMAGE, ICON, GOLD). Each of these besides POLAR implemented one or more UV spectrometers to separate specific emissions and create images of the scene, both in nadir viewing tracks and instantaneous 2D snapshots. As described in the 2014 Science Plan, future missions will examine the coupling of the magnetosphere to the ionosphere, atmospheric heating by the aurora, and the regulation of the system by the mass of the atmosphere. These new missions will likely require imagers that provide scientific context over a large field of view with high spatial resolution. Accompanying a spectrograph, this kind of imager relieves the spectrograph from having to provide all of these capabilities. A small UV imager can therefore be a key component in a synergistic payload, providing room to maneuver in the trade space of scientific and technical requirements that require imaging. • This proposal seeks to develop a basic, reference transmissive imager with high spatial resolution and large field of view. The goal is to prove the system with a simple MgF lens focusing UV light on heritage UV sensitive intensifier tube, while implementing first a heritage 1k x 1k imaging capability, and then developing algorithms for spot centroiding that would result in up to 4k effective spatial resolution (i.e. sub pixel resolution). This can be performed within in the H-TIDeS budget for the fact that UCB has recent and extensive capability in building UV hardware and can implement best practices and test programs from recently completed projects. The advancements proposed will also be in reduction of size of the imaging electronics (readout and post-processing). Implementation of a centroiding algorithm will reduce the noise budget to Poisson statistics, obviating sources of noise inherent in most detector schemes. Overall, the expected reductions in mass, power and volume from any previous UV geospace imager will likely support the implementation of multiple cameras on large spacecraft/missions, or single implementations on smallsats, down to possibly a 6U cubesat. • The proposal is supported by 2 scientists at UCB, a technical project lead engineer, and two international Co-Is who will support discussions of traceability and track needs of the European Space Agency for their own mission, looking for opportunities for future collaboration with NASA and ESA missions.

Support NASA's Heliophysics strategic science objectives to understand the Sun and its interactions with Earth and the solar system, including space weather. This will be achieved by developing/demonstrating instrumentation technology necessary to address the following science goals: Explore the physical processes in the space environment from the Sun to the Earth and throughout the solar system; Advance our understanding of the connections that link the Sun, the Earth, planetary space environments, and the outer reaches of our solar system; Develop the knowledge and capability to detect and predict extreme conditions in space to protect life and society and to safeguard human and robotic explorers beyond Earth.

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