HR: 08:12h
AN: AE51A-02 INVITED     [Abstracts]
TI: Sprite Imaging Results from the ROCSAT2 ISUAL Instrument
AU: * Mende, S
EM: mende@ssl.berkeley.edu
AF: Space Sciences Laboratory,University of California at Berkeley, 7 Gauss Way, Berkeley, CA 94720 United States
AU: Frey, H
AF: Space Sciences Laboratory,University of California at Berkeley, 7 Gauss Way, Berkeley, CA 94720 United States
AU: Hsu, R
AF: Physics Department, National Cheng Kung University, No. 1 Ta-Hsueh Road, Tainan, 70101 Taiwan
AU: Su, H
AF: Physics Department, National Cheng Kung University, No. 1 Ta-Hsueh Road, Tainan, 70101 Taiwan
AU: Chen, A
AF: Physics Department, National Cheng Kung University, No. 1 Ta-Hsueh Road, Tainan, 70101 Taiwan
AU: Lee, L
AF: Physics Department, National Cheng Kung University, No. 1 Ta-Hsueh Road, Tainan, 70101 Taiwan
AU: Lee, L
AF: National Applied Research Laboratories, 106 Hoping E. Rd. Sec2, Taipei, 106 Taiwan
AU: Fukunishi, H
AF: Department of Geophysics, Tohoku University, Miyagi, Sendai, 980-8578 Japan
AU: Takahashi, Y
AF: Department of Geophysics, Tohoku University, Miyagi, Sendai, 980-8578 Japan
AB: For the systematic observations of Transient Luminous Events (TLE-s, sprites, elve-s, blue jets etc.) and the study of their global distribution, a satellite based camera was launched as part of the "Imager for Sprites and Upper Atmospheric Lightning" (ISUAL) instrument on the Taiwanese ROCSAT 2 satellite. In addition to being a high quality imager of TLE-s the camera is suitable for the observation of aurora and airglow. The imager is bore-sighted with two photometers and the combined instrument package images the atmospheric phenomena and measures their spectral and rapid temporal properties. The imager has a field of view of 20 degrees horizontal and 5 degrees vertical covering a region that is approximately 1000 x 250 km at the earth limb. The view direction is perpendicular to the orbital plane. The imager carries a filter wheel and it can be operated in a number of wavelength regions uninhibited by atmospheric absorption. The spectral ranges are: 427.8 nm for the detection of energetic electron induced phenomena in TLE-s (e.g. blue jets) and aurora, 557.7 nm for the observation of aurora and airglow, 630 nm for the observation of ionospheric irregularities and aurora, wide red/IR N$_2$ 1st positive band region for the quantitative observation of sprites and elve-s and 762 nm for the observation of the airglow and especially gravity wave modulated intensity fluctuations. This filter is also effective in suppressing the low altitude part of TLE-s because of the atmospheric O$_2$ absorption. Numerous examples of elve-s were observed both in the N$_2$ 1st positive and the 762 nm filter bands. The nicest data on fully developed sprites was obtained in the N$_2$ 1st positive band. High intensity gravity waves were seen in the 762 nm band. Examples of various kinds of TLE-s, aurora and airglow that were observed by the imager illustrate its wide variety of application in aeronomy research.
DE: 3324 Lightning
DE: 3334 Middle atmosphere dynamics (0341, 0342)
DE: 3360 Remote sensing
DE: 3304 Atmospheric electricity
DE: 0340 Middle atmosphere--composition and chemistry
SC: Atmospheric and Space Electricity [AE]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting