The EUI instrument on board the Solar Orbiter mission: from breadboard and prototypes to instrument model validation

Abstract

The Solar Orbiter mission will explore the connection between the Sun and its heliosphere, taking advantage of an orbit approaching the Sun at 0.28 AU. As part of this mission, the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) will provide full-sun and high-resolution image sequences of the solar atmosphere at selected spectral emission lines in the extreme and vacuum ultraviolet.To achieve the required scientific performances under the challenging constraints of the Solar Orbiter mission it was required to further develop existing technologies. As part of this development, and of its maturation of technology readiness, a set of breadboard and prototypes of critical subsystems have thus been realized to improve the overall instrument design.The EUI instrument architecture, its major components and sub-systems are described with their driving constraints and the expected performances based on the breadboard and prototype results. The instrument verification and qualification plan will also be discussed. We present the thermal and mechanical model validation, the instrument test campaign with the structural-thermal model (STM), followed by the other instrument models in advance of the flight instrument manufacturing and AIT campaign.

Space radiation parameters for EUI and the Sun Sensor of Solar Orbiter, ESIO, and JUDE instruments

“…The EUI instrument [1], [8] is composed of two high-resolution imagers (HRI), one at the hydrogen Lyman-α line (HRI Lya ) and one in the extreme ultra-violet (EUV) at 174 Ǻ (HRI EUV ) (figure 1); and one dual band full-sun imager (FSI) working alternatively at the two 174 Ǻ and 304 Ǻ passbands (figure 2). [2] ESIO is a small, lightweight prototype solar EUV telescope and solar UV flux monitor for monitoring and forecasting of space weather phenomena with autonomous data processing capabilities.…”

Resolution performance of the extra ultraviolet telescopes

“…In 1946, the United States launched the V-2 rocket seized from Germany, have received the simple image of the universe for the first time in ultraviolet wavelengths. From then, the extreme ultraviolet astronomical observation and research become active, until now, many astronomical satellites were equipped with EUV detection instruments such as the Multi-Spectral Solar Telescope Array (MSSTA) II by NASA in 1994 , Solar and Heliospheric Mission (SOHO) by NASA/ESA in 1995 and still many launch plans are in progress such as the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) onboard Solar Orbiter by ESA which will be launched in 2017 [1] , EXtreme ultraviolet spectrosCope for ExosphEric Dynamics (EXCEED) by Japan which will be launched in 2013 [2] .…”

Vacuum-Ultraviolet Photon Detections

“…Aurora, magnetic storms, and ionospheric disturbances on the earth caused by the solar winds affect human life and have done serious damage to the earth (Cane and Richardson, 2003;Gosling et al, 1978;Sibeck et al, 1991). Therefore, special photodetectors are generally needed to conduct absolute measurement of VUV photon flux under high-radiation background during all kinds of space missions, such as SOLAR (SOL-ACES and SOL-SPEC instruments) (Schmidtke et al, 2014), PROBA II (LYRA and SWAP instruments) (Hochedez et al, 2006) and Solar Orbiter (EUI and SPICE instruments) (Halain et al, 2012).…”