NASA’s Multi-Angle Imager for Aerosols (MAIA) mission, under development at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, is designed to study the adverse health effects of different types of particulate air pollution. Planned for launch in late 2022 for a 3-year mission, the MAIA satellite instrument will focus on a selected set of metropolitan target areas, where air quality monitors and health data are available. Aerosol concentration and speciation are inferred from multi-angle measurements of backscattered sunlight in 14 spectral bands from 350-2200 nm, with bands near 442, 645 and 1040 nm measuring the degree (DoLP) and angle of linear polarization (AoLP) in addition to radiance. The pushbroom camera has a ~240-km cross-track field of view with a nadir resolution of ~200 m, and is mounted onto a biaxial gimbal to provide along-track view angles within ±60°, to extend the field of regard to ±48°, and to view the instrument’s onboard calibrator (OBC) and dark target. The OBC consists of a sunlit transmissive diffuser, followed by 12 polarizers at different orientations. MAIA’s polarimetry is implemented using miniature wiregrid polarizers on the focal plane array, and dual photoelastic modulators (PEMs) and achromatic quarter-wave plates to rapidly rotate the polarization. The resulting ~26-Hz intensity modulation encodes the linearly polarized and total radiance in each pixel, leaving the DoLP and AoLP insensitive to gain calibration. We report on the polarimetric calibration of the MAIA camera using a vacuum-compatible polarization state generator, consisting of a 1600W Xenon lamp, 12-inch integrating sphere, and rotating high-extinction polarizer. Mueller-matrix-based calibration coefficients for each detector pixel are derived from measurements at multiple polarizer angles, and are used to correct the measurements for instrumental polarization aberrations. Prior to flight, the calibrated MAIA camera is panned across the OBC to characterize its output, using uniform illumination with an irradiance similar to the Sun.
The Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) was launched in 1999 as part of NASA’s Terra satellite suite of instruments. Still operational, it makes use of observations from multiple view angles to retrieve aerosol abundance and particle properties. The Multi-Angle Imager for Aerosols (MAIA) instrument improves on this heritage by incorporating polarimetry and an expanded spectral range. Combining these data with surface measurements, the relationship between pollution and human health will be explored. MAIA has just completed camera testing, building on the experience from MISR. Spectral calibration now makes use of a double subtractive monochromator, built with the intent to allow the exit slit output to be uniform in spectral content. For radiometric testing, hardware upgrades have included adding UV lamps to the 1.65 cm (65") integrating sphere, use of a NIST-traceable sphere to establish absolute radiances, and the addition of a UV transfer spectrometer to support characterization of the sphere output from 300 to 2500 nm. During camera build, Newton’s rings were observed in the detector Quantum Efficiency (QE) measurements. This is due to etaloning within the detector itself. Etaloning was also evident in the spectral and radiometric characterizations performed on the completed camera. Spectral metrics, including center wavelength and width, are presented here using a moment’s analysis. This better represents the band properties, particularly in bands where fringing is observed, as compared to a full-width at halfmaximum determination. The MAIA camera has been carefully characterized, and meets its spectral and radiometric requirements.
The Multi-Angle Imager for Aerosols (MAIA) instrument is currently scheduled for launch into polar Earth orbit in 2023. MAIA uses a single camera on a 2-axis gimbal for multi-angle viewing of Earth scenes, with the objective of making radiometric and polarimetric measurements. The data will then be used to determine aerosol size, type, and density. Health records will be collected in parallel as part of the MAIA investigation to enable correlation of adverse health effects with the aerosol data. The MAIA camera includes one visible and one SWIR detector, comprising a total of 14 wavelength bands from the UV to SWIR. Three of the bands are polarimetric. The MAIA telescope is a four-mirror anastigmat and has significant distortion of the field-of-view. Each channel in the camera comprises one or two rows of pixels, and each row has a total of 1216 pixels dedicated to imaging. Different channels must be co-registered to each other and each pixel must be geolocated to a fraction of the pixel size prior to determination of polarimetry and subsequent derivation of aerosol data. This requires, among other items, an accurate model of the camera internal geometry. This paper summarizes the geometric calibration performed during pre-flight testing to measure the transformation from pixel positions in the focal plane to angles in object space, i.e., the pointing angle of each pixel, and vice-versa.
Spacecraft carrying optical communication lasers can be treated as artificial stars, whose relative astrometry to Gaia reference stars provides spacecraft positions in the plane-of-sky for optical navigation. To be comparable to current Deep Space Network delta-Differential One-way Ranging measurements, thus sufficient for navigation, nanoradian optical astrometry is required. Here we describe our error budget, techniques for achieving nanoradian level ground-base astrometry, and preliminary results from a 1 m telescope. We discuss also how these spacecraft may serve as artificial reference stars for adaptive optics, high precision astrometry to detect exoplanets, and tying reference frames defined by radio and optical measurements.
The SIM Lite Astrometric Observatory is to perform narrow angle astrometry to search for Earth-like planets, and global
astrometry for a broad astrophysics program, for example, mapping the distribution of dark matter in the Galaxy. The
new SIM Lite consists of two Michelson interferometers and one star tracking telescope. The main six-meter baseline
science interferometer observes a target star and a set of reference stars. The four-meter baseline interferometer (guide-1)
monitors the attitude of the instrument in the direction of a target star. The Guide-2 telescope (G2T) tracks a bright star
to monitor the attitude of the instrument in the other two orthogonal directions. A testbed has been built to demonstrate
star-tracking capability of the G2T concept using a new interferometric angle metrology system. In the presence of
simulated 0.2 arcsecond level of expected spacecraft attitude control system perturbations, the measured star-tracking
capability of the G2T testbed system is less than 43 micro-arcsecond during single narrow angle observation.
The Space Interferometry Mission Light (SIM-Lite) is a new mission concept to perform a micro-arcsecond narrow-angle
astrometry to search approximately 50 nearby stars for Earth-like planets, and to perform a global astrometry with
an accuracy of six micro-arcsecond position and parallax measurements. The SIM-Lite consists of two Michelson
interferometers and one telescope. The main six-meter baseline science interferometer observes a target star and a set of
reference stars. The four-meter baseline interferometer (guide-1) monitors the attitude of the instrument in the direction
of a target star. A Guide-2 telescope (G2T) tracks a bright star to monitor the attitude of the instrument in the other two
orthogonal directions. To demonstrate the concept of the G2T, we have developed a testbed using brassboard optics
built for the SIM project. The G2T testbed consists of a 35 cm siderostat, a beam compressor, and a fast steering mirror
(FSM) in closed loop with a CCD based pointing sensor. A heterodyne laser angle metrology system is used to monitor
angular positions of the FSM with required accuracy of 20 micro-arcsecond during SIM-Lite narrow-angle observation
time. We present the concept of the testbed architecture and preliminary test results of the angular metrology (aMet)
system.
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