AURORAL DIAGNOSTICS FOR POGOLITE ASTROPHYSICAL BALLOON

• Main Authors: O. Jokiaho, N. Ivchenko, H. Dahlgren, D. Whiter, M. Alaniz
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Kiruna; Tilting
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.630.3799; http://www.ee.kth.se/php/modules/publications/reports/2009/IR-EE-SPP_2009_059.pdf

The PoGOLite balloon experiment, to be launched from Kiruna in August 2010 will investigate polarisation of X-rays from astrophysical objects. Auroral emissions in the measured wavelength range enhance the background level for the experiment, but also constitute an interesting object of their own. The state-of-the art PoGOLite instru-ment will benefit from careful characterisation of aurora, and could provide unique results on the auroral X-ray po-larisation. We present the design of the auroral diagnostic pack-age to be flown onboard the PoGOLite balloon. It con-sists of two photometers and a fluxgate magnetometer. The photometers are equipped with Fabry-Perot etalons, which are scanned in wavelength by tilting, to measure auroral emissions as well as the surrounding background. The fluxgate magnetometer will characterize the auroral electrojet currents (to put observations in context of the sub-storm dynamics), and low frequency waves, which are thought to be responsible for pitch-angle diffusion of trapped high energy electrons. 1.