APPLICATION OF ELECTRO OPTICS TO AURORAL STUDIES
Abstract
During 1963 an investigation was performed to examine the feasibility of obtaining information on the changing characteristics of the aurora and night air glow by low-light-level image orthicons (I.O.) at the Radio-Optical Observatory of the General Electric Company's Advanced Technology Laboratories in Schenectady, New York. Although it was a poor year for auroras, movies and spectral lines were simultaneously photographed of various displays from the I. O. monitor, and were compared with photographs taken by other people. The image orthicon is faster by about three orders of magnitude than photographic film. Night air glow spectra were adequately received with 8 second exposures, with 100 photons sufficient to record a line, even considering grating loss, etc. A detailed discussion on image orthicon utilization with weakly illuminated point, line and extended sources is given, along with the theoretical and practical limitations on dynamic range, intensity, calibrations, spectrograph wavelength calibration, and signal-to-noise ratio.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 01, 1963
- Accession Number
- AD0432157
Entities
People
- J. E. Anderson
- J. F. Spalding
Organizations
- General Electric