An ultraviolet auroral imager for the Viking spacecraft

Abstract

The V5 ultraviolet auroral imager is one of a complement of experiments launched into polar orbit aboard the Swedish spacecraft Viking in February of 1986. The imager consists of two intensified wide‐angle f/1 cameras, identical except in passband, with electronic despinning providing exposure times of one second. Critical to electronic despinning is the use of tapered fiber optic bundles to remove distortions generated when the spherical focal surface of the Burch configuration camera is projected onto the plane of the charge coupled detector. Data acquired by V5 are telemetered to a ground station in Kiruna, Sweden for archiving and real time display using a VAX11/750 system.