ESA Science & Technology - SMILE UltraViolet Imager (UVI)

The UVI is an ultraviolet camera to image Earth's northern auroral regions. It will study the connection between the processes taking place in the magnetospheric boundaries – as seen by the SXI – and those acting on the charged particles precipitating into our ionosphere.

This imager is a CMOS-based camera centred on the 160-180 nm waveband, with a 10° × 10° field of view. It will have a spatial image resolution at apogee of 150 km, and will use four thin film-coated mirrors to guide light into its detector. The temporal resolution will be up to 60s.

The UVI is a joint venture between the University of Calgary, Canada, the Chinese National Space Science Centre, and Centre Spatial de Liège (CSL), Belgium, with the Polar Research Institute of China (PRIC) providing ground observations support.