Mini-EUSO experiment to study UV emission of terrestrial and astrophysical origin onboard of the International Space Station

TL;DR

Mini-EUSO is a space-based UV telescope on the ISS designed to study atmospheric phenomena, cosmic rays, and exotic matter by capturing UV emissions from Earth and space with high sensitivity and auxiliary imaging systems.

Contribution

This paper introduces the Mini-EUSO instrument, detailing its design, capabilities, and scientific objectives for UV observation from the ISS.

Findings

Designed to detect TLEs, meteors, and bioluminescence

Searches for UHECRs above 10^21 eV and SQM

Includes auxiliary infrared and visible cameras

Abstract

Mini-EUSO will observe the Earth in the UV range (300 - 400 nm) offering the opportunity to study a variety of atmospheric events such as Transient Luminous Events (TLEs), meteors and marine bioluminescence. Furthermore it aims to search for Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECR) above $10^{21}$ eV and Strange Quark Matter (SQM). The detector is expected to be launched to the International Space Station in August 2019 and look at the Earth in nadir mode from the UV-transparent window of the Zvezda module of the International Space Station. The instrument comprises a compact telescope with a large field of view ($44^{\circ}$), based on an optical system employing two Fresnel lenses for light collection. The light is focused onto an array of 36 multi-anode photomultiplier tubes (MAPMT), for a total of 2304 pixels and the resulting signal is converted into digital, processed and stored via the electronics subsystems on-board. In addition to the main detector, Mini-EUSO contains two ancillary cameras for complementary measurements in the near infrared (1500 - 1600 nm) and visible (400 - 780 nm) range and also a 8x8 SiPM imaging array.