Performance of Solmacs, a High PV Solar Concentrator With Efficient Optics

in CPV-8 conference proceedings (in press)

The SWAP EUV Imaging Telescope Part I: Instrument Overview and Pre-Flight Testing

in Solar Physics (2012)

The Sun Watcher with Active Pixels and Image Processing (SWAP) is an EUV solar telescope onboard ESA’s Project for Onboard Autonomy 2 (PROBA2) mission launched on 2 November 2009. SWAP has a spectral ... [more ▼]

The Sun Watcher with Active Pixels and Image Processing (SWAP) is an EUV solar telescope onboard ESA’s Project for Onboard Autonomy 2 (PROBA2) mission launched on 2 November 2009. SWAP has a spectral bandpass centered on 17.4 nm and provides images of the low solar corona over a 54 × 54 arcmin field-of-view with 3.2 arcsec pixels and an imaging cadence of about two minutes. SWAP is designed to monitor all space-weatherrelevant events and features in the low solar corona. Given the limited resources of the PROBA2 microsatellite, the SWAP telescope is designed with various innovative technologies, including an off-axis optical design and a CMOS–APS detector. This article provides reference documentation for users of the SWAP image data. [less ▲]

Low Concentration Solar Array Experiment on-board PROBA-2

in Proceedings of the 8th Space Power Conference (2008, September)

Synthetic aperture co-phasing and co-alignment using an external reference source

in Proceedings of ICSO 2006 (2006, June 27)

A breadboard set-up has demonstrated a concept of co-phasing and co-alignment based on an external reference source for synthetic aperture telescopes applications. These types of systems can be extremely ... [more ▼]

A breadboard set-up has demonstrated a concept of co-phasing and co-alignment based on an external reference source for synthetic aperture telescopes applications. These types of systems can be extremely valuable in order to perform coarse re-alignment of synthetic aperture telescope, following thermo-elastic deformation and deployment effects in space flight environments. [less ▲]

SWAP: Sun watcher with a new EUV telescope on a technology demonstration platform

in 5th International Conference on Space Optics (2004, June 01)

SWAP (SWAP (Sun Watcher using Active Pixel System detector and Image Processing) is an instrument that has been selected to fly on the PROBA-2 technology demonstration platform, a program of the European ... [more ▼]

SWAP (SWAP (Sun Watcher using Active Pixel System detector and Image Processing) is an instrument that has been selected to fly on the PROBA-2 technology demonstration platform, a program of the European Space Agency (ESA) to be launched in 2006. SWAP is based on an off-axis degraded Ritchey Chretien telescope that will image the EUV solar corona at 19.5 nm on a specifically fabricated extreme ultraviolet (EUV) sensitivity enhanced CMOS APS detector. The optical design and the optical coatings are derived from the Extreme Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (EIT) operating on-board SOHO since 1995. It has been adapted for a single wavelength telescope with off-axis optics. It allows to use smaller optics and filters, with simple internal baffles avoiding external protruding parts. The superpolished optics will receive a multilayer coating that provides spectral selection centred on 19.5 nm and EUV reflectivity in normal incidence. This compact design is specifically adapted for accommodation on PROBA-2, where mass and envelope requirements are very stringent The SWAP PROBA-2 program will be an opportunity to demonstrate this new optical concept, while it will also validate space remote sensing with APS detectors, as well as on-board image processing capabilities. On the science outcomes, SWAP will provide solar corona images in the Fe XII line on a baselined 2-min cadence. Observations with this specific wavelength allow detecting phenomena, such as solar flares or 'EIT-waves', associated with the early phase of coronal mass ejections. The SWAP data will complement the observations provided by SOHO-EIT, and STEREO-SECCHI. [less ▲]