Speaker
Description
Since 2019, the Mini-EUSO (Multiwavelength Imaging New Instrument for
the Extreme Universe Space Observatory) telescope observes the Earth from
the International Space Station with a field of view of 44 degrees and a spatial resolution of about 6 km at Earth’s surface. Mini-EUSO main detector is a UV camera consisting of two Fresnel lenses and a focal surface composed of an array of 36 Hamamatsu multi-anode photomultiplier tubes, for a total of 2304 pixels. The telescope is capable of observing UV emissions (in the range 290-430 nm) of cosmic, atmospheric and terrestrial origin on different time scales.
On the fastest sampling timescale of 2.5 microseconds and with a spatial resolution of about 5 km at ionospheric altitude (≃ 90 km), Mini-EUSO observes atmospheric phenomena as Transient Luminous Events, in particular ELVES (Emission of Light and Very low-frequency perturbations due to Electromagnetic pulse Sources). ELVES are rapidly expanding rings of optical and ultraviolet emissions in the lower ionosphere, resulting from the de-excitation of molecular nitrogen and oxygen following a lightning-associated ElectroMagnetic wave Pulse (EMP). A detailed study of their morphological characteristics (such as number of rings, radius, propagation speed, and energy) is required for the understanding of these phenomenon. Mini-EUSO, thanks to its imaging capabilities, fast time resolution, and favorable observational geometry, is very well suited to studying it.
In this contribution, results from high precision observation of several ELVES will be presented.
| Collaboration(s) | on behalf of the JEM-EUSO Collaboration |
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