SSUSI Publications

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This report describes the SSUSI single sensor Auroral E-layer algorithm developed by Computational Physics, Inc. for Phillips Laboratory and provided to the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory for incorporation into the operational software for SSUSI. SSUSI is an Ultraviolet Disk and Limb Imager to be flown aboard DMSP satellites for ionospheric and thermospheric remote sensing purposes. The algorithm described here uses the Lyman-alpha intensity and the intensities in two wavelength bands dominated by the Lyman-Birge-Hopfield band system from molecular nitrogen to estimate the characteristic energy and energy flux of electrons and protons in the auroral region. A simple auroral chemistry model is then used to estimate the peak density and height of the auroral E-layer. Uncertainties in the measured intensities and the algorithm parameters are estimated at each stage of the calculation and an estimate of the uncertainty in the calculated quantities is provided along with the quantities themselves.