The Imaging Magnetograph eXperiment (IMaX) is a spectropolarimeter built by four institutions in Spain that flew on board the Sunrise balloon-borne solar observatory in June 2009 for almost six days over the Arctic Circle. As a polarimeter, IMaX uses fast polarization modulation (based on the use of two liquid crystal retarders), real-time image accumulation, and dual-beam polarimetry to reach polarization sensitivities of 0.1%. As a spectrograph, the instrument uses a LiNbO 3 etalon in double pass and a narrow band V. Martínez Pillet ( ) · J.A. Bonet · E. Ballesteros · M. Collados · S. Vargas Domínguez Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, 38200, La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain e-mail: vmp@iac.es pre-filter to achieve a spectral resolution of 85 mÅ. IMaX uses the high-Zeeman-sensitive line of Fe I at 5250.2 Å and observes all four Stokes parameters at various points inside the spectral line. This allows vector magnetograms, Dopplergrams, and intensity frames to be produced that, after reconstruction, reach spatial resolutions in the 0.15 -0.18 arcsec range over a 50 × 50 arcsec field of view. Time cadences vary between 10 and 33 s, although the shortest one only includes longitudinal polarimetry. The spectral line is sampled in various ways depending on the applied observing mode, from just two points inside the line to 11 of them. All observing modes include one extra wavelength point in the nearby continuum. Gauss equivalent sensitivities are 4 G for longitudinal fields and 80 G for transverse fields per wavelength sample. The line-of-sight velocities are estimated with statistical errors of the order of 5 -40 m s −1 . The design, calibration, and integration phases of the instrument, together with the implemented data reduction scheme, are described in some detail.

We present the optical effects of different tests that simulate the aerospace environment on the liquid-crystal variable retarders (LCVRs) used in the Imaging Magnetograph eXperiment postfocal instrument of the SUNRISE payload within the NASA Long Duration Balloon program. Analysis of the influence of vacuum, temperature, vibration, and gamma and ultraviolet radiation is performed by measuring the effects of these tests on the optical retardance, the response time, the wavefront distortion, and the transmittance, including some in situ measurements. Outgassing measurements of the different parts of the LCVRs are also shown. From the results obtained it can be concluded that these optical devices are suitable and seem to be excellent candidates for aerospace platforms.

The Radiation and Dust Sensor is one of six sensors of the Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer onboard the Perseverance rover from the Mars 2020 NASA mission. Its primary goal is to characterize the airbone dust in the Mars atmosphere, inferring its concentration, shape and optical properties. Thanks to its geometry, the sensor will be capable of studying dust-lifting processes with a high temporal resolution and high spatial coverage. Thanks to its multiwavelength design, it will characterize the solar spectrum from Mars’ surface. The present work describes the sensor design from the scientific and technical requirements, the qualification processes to demonstrate its endurance on Mars’ surface, the calibration activities to demonstrate its performance, and its validation campaign in a representative Mars analog. As a result of this process, we obtained a very compact sensor, fully digital, with a mass below 1 kg and exceptional power consumption and data budget features.

The variation of the optical properties of porous Vycor glass ͑Corning, Model 7930͒ under different relative-humidity conditions was studied. The adsorption of water into the glass pores was investigated with spectroscopic ellipsometry. The change of the refractive index was ⌬n ϳ 0.04 between 5% and 90% relative humidity. A linear relation between the ellipsometer parameter tan ⌿, the amount of water adsorbed in the glass pores, and information about the pore-size distributions was established. The results are in accord with the values obtained from N 2 isotherms, transmission electron microscope micrographs, and the manufacturer's specifications ͑radius of ϳ20 Å͒. The possibility of using this material as a transducer for implementation in a fiber-optic sensor to measure humidity was evaluated.

IMaX is the Imaging Magnetograph eXperiment, an instrument part of the payload of SUNRISE, a stratospheric balloon mission in Antarctica. It is also the precursor of the Visible Imaging Magnetograph of the future ESA Solar Orbiter mission. It is essentially a diffraction‐limited imager that carries out spectropolarimetric measurements of high resolution (bandwidth of < 100 mÅ at 525.02 nm), and relates the polarimetric properties of the incoming light through a telescope with magnetic fields in the Sun, via the Zeeman effect. At the core of the instrument there are the polarization modulation components, two Liquid Crystal Variable Retarders (LCVRs). A demodulation efficiency is defined and used as the figure of merit, and it serves to find the theoretical optimum states for the LCVRs as well as to judge the quality of the pre‐flight calibration of the system. This calibration and the method used to optimize the actual efficiency is explained. Also, the space qualification of the LCVRs is presented, where ellipsometry played a major role in studying the effects of radiation, vacuum and temperature in the operation of the LCVRs. (© 2008 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)