The Satellite

BALL Satellite Bus (click to enlarge)

The body of the SME spacecraft was a cylinder approximately 1.7 x 1.25 m and consisted of two major modules: the observatory module that housed the scientific instruments, and the spacecraft bus.

Instruments

SME had five instruments.

UV Ozone Instrument

A dual channel Ebert-Fastie spectrometer which operated in the spectral range of 240–330 nm. It measured ozone absorption of Rayleigh scattered sunlight.

1.27μ Airglow Instrument

A dual channel Ebert-Fastie spectrometer which operated in the spectral range of 0.7–1.4μ and 1.2–2.4μ. It measured the O₂ (¹Δ_g) from ozone photolysis.

LASP Observatory Module (click to enlarge)

Visible Nitrogen Dioxide Instrument

A dual channel Ebert-Fastie spectrometer which operated in the spectral range of 312–640 nm. It measured NO₂ absorption of Rayleigh scattered sunlight.

Four-channel Infrared Radiometer

A telescope with four passively cooled mercury-cadmium telluride detectors/filters. It measured ozone, water vapor, and temperature.

SME made the first systematic measurements of ozone in this region of the atmosphere and they have served as a basis for ongoing analysis and understanding of the chemical and temperature structure of the mesosphere.

Solar UV spectrometer

A spectrometer which operated in the spectral range of 15—300 nm. It measured solar irradiance.

This data is available at the LASP Interactive Solar Irradiance Datacenter (LISIRD).