SCISAT-1
| Mission type | Remote sensing |
|---|---|
| Operator | Canadian Space Agency (CSA) |
| COSPAR ID | 2003-036A |
| Website | www |
| Mission duration | 2 years (minimum) |
| Spacecraft properties | |
| Manufacturer | Bristol Aerospace |
| Launch mass | 260 kg (570 lb) |
| Start of mission | |
| Launch date | 13 August 2003, 02:09:33 UTC |
| Rocket | Pegasus-XL F35 |
| Launch site | Vandenberg Runway 12/30 |
| Contractor | Orbital |
| Orbital parameters | |
| Reference system | Geocentric |
| Regime | Low Earth |
| Perigee | 642 km (399 mi) |
| Apogee | 654 km (406 mi) |
| Inclination | 73.9 degrees |
SCISAT-1 is a Canadian satellite designed to make observations of the Earth's atmosphere. Its main instruments are an optical Fourier transform infrared spectrometer, the ACE-FTS Instrument, and an ultraviolet spectrophotometer, MAESTRO. These devices record spectra of the Sun, as sunlight passes through the Earth's atmosphere, making analyses of the chemical elements of the atmosphere possible.
SCISAT is a relatively small satellite weighing 150 kg (330 lb). It is partly drum shaped with a diameter of about five feet and a depth of about five feet. The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) coordinated its design, launch and use. The main contractors were Bristol Aerospace of Winnipeg, Manitoba, who were prime contractor for the bus, and ABB Bomem Inc. of Quebec City, Quebec who developed the ACE-FTS instrument. The total development cost of SCISAT, as estimated by the CSA in 2003, was about CDN$60M. As of 13 years after launch, the satellite and its instruments are still operating.
The ACE-FTS instrument is the main payload of the SCISAT-1 spacecraft. The primary scientific goal of the Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment (ACE) is to measure and understand the chemical and dynamical processes that control the distribution of ozone in the upper troposphere and stratosphere. The principle of ACE measurement is the solar occultation technique. A high inclination (74 degrees), low Earth orbit 650 km (400 mi) will provide ACE coverage of tropical, mid-latitudes and polar regions.
The spectrometer is an adapted version of the classical Michelson interferometer using an optimized optical layout. Its highly folded double-pass optical design results in a very high performance instrument with a compact size. A signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) better than 100 is achieved, with a field-of-view (FOV) of 1.25 mrad and an aperture diameter of 100 mm (4"). A semiconductor laser is used as the metrology source of the interferometer sub-system.
The auxiliary Visible/Near-infrared Imager (VNI) monitors aerosols based on the extinction of solar radiation using two filtered detectors at 0.525 and 1.02 micrometres. The instrument also includes a Suntracker mechanism providing fine pointing toward the radiometric center of the Sun with stability better than 3 μrad. The ACE-FTS instrument was launched on August 12, 2003.
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