The meridian scanning photometer (MSP) is one of the principle instruments currently in use for obtaining routine records of the position, intensity, and motion of aurora and airglow emissions.

Technical details:

• Four channel meridian scanning photometer
• 2 inch optics
• Photomultipliers operating in puls mode, EMI 9884 and 9558
• Scanning via a gir-down stepping motor with digit. angel readout
• Optical field of view: 0.5, 1.2, 4 and 8 degr circular for all chan.
• Indoor scanning cont.
• Scan speed: 1 - 10 deg/sec.
• Wavelenghts: 427.8, 486.1, 557.7 and 630.0 nm
• Filter BW: 1.0 - 1.5 nm
• Output: TTL dig. 0-3 MHz
• Sector limits: 0 to 180 degr.
• Angular indic.: 12 bit dig., LSB=0.1 deg, Analog 1 deg=50 mV
  
• PC performing data log/display in realtime or post-mission
• Hard copies as stack plots or color coded plots.
• Classical ratemeter and paper recorder avail. as backup.
  

  Wavelength  Color            Source
   557.7 nm   green    neutral atomic oxygen (O)
   630.0 nm   red      neutral atomic oxygen (O)
   427.8 nm   blue     ionized diatomic nitrogen (N2+)
   486.1 nm   blue     neutral hydrogen (Balmer-beta) (H)

• Sample profile (to come)
• Latest measurement (to come)