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Viking Ultraviolet Imager (UVI)
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Sweden's
Viking (pronounced VEE-king) satellite was launched into
orbit on February 22, 1986 with a payload designed to
make detailed measurements of energy processes in the
auroral region.
A
Canadian instrument, called the Ultraviolet Imager (UVI)
comprised part of that payload. It provided Canadian
scientists with their first photographs of the entire aurora
region. The images, used in conjunction with Canada's
ground-based CANOPUS network, were studied and used to
determine the behaviour of the auroral oval, polar arcs, and
magnetic substorms.
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The UVI instrument, designed and built by CAL Corp. of Ottawa,
consisted of a pair of small telescopes used to image
ultra-violet auroral.
The UVI instrument, designed and built by CAL Corp. of Ottawa
consisted of a pair of small telescopes used to image
ultra-violet auroral emissions generated by molecular nitrogen
and atomic oxygen. The novel camera system was able to take
pictures at a rate of three a minute - thirty times faster
than an earlier American imager. And since it measured
ultra-violet rays rather than the visible-light spectrum, UVI
was able to take photographs both day and night.
The UVI imager provided continuous data to a receiving station in
Esrange near Kiruna, Sweden until the completion of the Viking
mission on January 28, 1987.
Canada's international UVI scientific team was led by Dr. C.D. Anger of
the University of Calgary. The team represented, among others,
over 20 scientists from Canadian universities and various
government agencies.
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