Mini-EUSO Mission to Study Earth UV Emissions on board the ISS

Abstract

Mini-EUSO is a telescope observing the Earth in the ultraviolet band from the International Space Station. It is a part of the JEM-EUSO program, paving the way to future larger missions, such as K-EUSO and POEMMA, devoted primarily to the observation of ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays from space. Mini-EUSO is capable of observing extensive air showers generated by ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays with an energy above 1021 eV and to detect artificial showers generated with lasers from the ground. Other main scientific objectives of the mission are the search for nuclearites and strange quark matter, the study of atmospheric phenomena such as transient luminous events, meteors, and meteoroids, the observation of sea bioluminescence and of artificial satellites and man-made space debris. Mini-EUSO will map the nighttime Earth in the UV range (290–430 nm), with a spatial resolution of about 6.3 km and a temporal resolution of 2.5 μs, through a nadir-facing UV-transparent window in the Russian Zvezda module. The instrument, launched on 2019 August 22, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, is based on an optical system employing two Fresnel lenses and a focal surface composed of 36 multianode photomultiplier tubes, 64 channels each, for a total of 2304 channels with single-photon counting sensitivity and an overall field of view of 44°. Mini-EUSO also contains two ancillary cameras to complement measurements in the near-infrared and visible ranges. In this paper, we describe the detector and present the various phenomena observed in the first months of operations.

Expected performance of the K-EUSO space-based observatory

“…The quantum efficiency of the MAPMTs is between 35 to 40% in the wavelength range 300-400 nm. The photomultiplier signal is read out and amplified by the SPACIROC3 ASIC [3] already in use in Mini-EUSO [4]. The SPACIROC3 operates in the single photoelectron mode and has a double pulse resolution of less than 10 ns.…”

Characterization of the DIMS system based on astronomical meteor techniques for macroscopic dark matter search

“…Similarly, limits on the flux of nuclearites have been provided by searching for anomalous meteor-like tracks in the data collected by the Pi of the Sky experiment [5]. The possibility of detecting nuclearites was also considered by the JEM-EUSO program [6], which included macros investigations in the scientific payload of experiments like Mini-EUSO onboard the International Space Station [7] and future space detectors like POEMMA [8].…”

A study on UV emission from clouds with Mini-EUSO

“…The cloud cover determination is an open issue, and affects several experimental fields, from the physics of the atmosphere (meteorology and climatology), to astronomy, and to cosmic-ray detection system. The Mini-EUSO telescope observes the Earth in the ultraviolet band (UV) [1], and is devoted to the study of ultra high energy cosmic rays coming from the space through their extensive air showers in the Earth's atmosphere. From a first inspection of Mini-EUSO UV maps it was possible to state the capability of this telescope to detect tropospheric clouds (see Figure 1).…”