Observations of the Ionosphere and Thermosphere from the Special Sensor Ultraviolet Limb Imager (SSULI)

The Special Sensor Ultraviolet Limb Imager (SSULI) sensor was launched on the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) F18 spacecraft in October of 2009 into a sun-synchronous 830 km circular orbit at a local time of 0800-2000 UT. The SSULI sensor has a field-of-view of 2.4°x0.15° and sweeps out a 2.4°x17° field-of-regard during each 90 second scan, with wavelength coverage between 800Å and 1700Å at 17Å resolution. The field of view scans ahead of the spacecraft in the orbital plane through a 17° field of regard, corresponding to approximately 75-750 km altitude. SSULI uses a variety of emission features from far ultraviolet to extreme ultraviolet to remotely sense the ionosphere and thermosphere. 834Å, 911Å and 1356Å are used to produce altitude profiles of the dominant ionospheric ions (O+). 1356Å, LBH and 1085Å are used to produce altitude profiles thermospheric composition (O, N2, and O2) and temperature. We present observations of the ionosphere and thermosphere from SSULI.