BackForwardInstrument:  MATS 

Instrument details
Acronym MATS
Full name Mesospheric Airglow/Aerosol Tomography and Spectroscopy
Purpose To investigate atmospheric waves by imaging variation in the light emitted by oxygen molecules at 100 km, as well as structures in the highest clouds in the atmosphere around 80 km ("noctilucent clouds"),
Short description UV and NIR spectroradiometer, with two channels in the interval 270-305 nm to observe sunlight scattered from noctilucent clouds and four channels in the interval 760-780 nm, to observe noctilucent clouds and atmospheric airglow day and night from the Oxygen A-Band. All 6 channels observe the limb and in addition 1 channel observes the nadir (see table below).
Background New development
Scanning Technique Two CCD imagers, one for nadir viewing and one for the Earth's limb.
Resolution See table below
Coverage / Cycle Global in TBD days
Mass Power Data Rate

 

Providing Agency SNSA
Instrument Maturity Flown on an R&D satellite
Utilization Period: 2023 to 2024
Last update: 2022-11-07
Detailed characteristics
Channel Central λ (nm) Bandwidth (nm) Tangent alt (km) Resolution (km) Resolution binning (km) SNR
UV1 270 3 70-90 0.2 0.2 x 5 100
UV2 304.5 3 70-90 0.2 0.2 x 5 100
IR1 762 3.5 75-110 0.4 0.4 x 10 500
IR2 763 8 75-110 0.4 0.4 x 10 500
IR3 754 3 75-110 0.8 0.8 x 50 500
IR4 772 3 75-110 0.8 0.8 x 50 500
NADIR 762 8 nadir 10 10 x 15 100
Satellites this instrument is flying on

Note: a red tag indicates satellites no longer operational, a green tag indicates operational satellites, a blue tag indicates future satellites

Instrument classification
  • Solar and space environment monitors
  • Space radiometer or spectrometer
WIGOS Subcomponents
  • Subcomponent 3
  • UV spectral imagery (e.g. GEO, HEO, MEO, LEO)
  • UV spectral imager [from GEO, HEO, MEO, LEO]
  • NIR/SWIR spectral imager [from GEO, HEO, MEO, LEO]
Mission objectives
Primary mission objectives
  • NIR/SWIR flux
  • UV flux
Evaluation of Measurements

The following list indicates which measurements can typically be retrieved from this category of instrument. To see a full Gap Analysis by Variable, click on the respective variable.

Note: table can be sorted by clicking on the column headers
Note: * Primary mission objective.
VariableRelevance for measuring this variableOperational limitationsExplanation
UV flux*2 - very highNo specific limitation.Earth's limb and surface observed, moderate dynamic range
NIR/SWIR flux*2 - very highNo specific limitation.Earth's limb and surface observed, moderate dynamic range