Microwave Electrojet Magnetogram (MEM) Instrument for the Electrojet Zeeman Imaging Explorer (EZIE) Mission

Abstract

The Electrojet Zeeman Imaging Explorer (EZIE) is an innovative multi-satellite mission that images the magnetic fingerprint of intense electrical currents flowing in the upper layers of Earth's atmosphere. EZIE's multi-point measurements of these electrojets will provide closure to decades-old, and much debated, mysteries of the interaction between the Earth and the surrounding space. Each of EZIE's three satellites carries a microwave electrojet magnetogram (MEM) instrument which consists of four identical 118-GHz heterodyne spectropolarimeters. They are designed and optimized to cost-effectively meet EZIE's measurement requirements. EZIE's MEM instruments use the Zeeman effect to infer magnetic fields at ~80 km altitude. The technique has been used extensively to derive the Sun's magnetic field. EZIE now applies this technique to the Earth system.