HIGH SPATIAL RESOLUTION/LARGE FIELD OF VIEW DETECTOR AND DATA HANDLING SYSTEM FOR A SPACE BASED SOLAR VECTOR MAGNETOGRAPH

CIVILIAN AND MILITARY SPACECRAFT SYSTEMS, COMMUNICATIONS, DETECTION, TRACKING AND SURVEILLANCE ACTIVITES CAN BE ENDANGERED OR DEGRADED BY SOLAR ACTIVITY. THE SUN INDUCES THESE DISTURBANCES THROUGH MAGNETIC FIELD DISTURBANCES, ELECTROMAGNETIC AND CHARGED PARTICLE IRRADIATION OF THE EARTH'S UPPER ATMOSPHERES. ONE METHOD OF CIRCUMVENTING SERIOUS CONSEQUENCES OF THIS ACTIVITY IS THROUGH SPACE BASEDMONITORING AND PREDICTION OF SOLAR ACTIVE REGIONS. ONE SUCHMONITORING DEVICE THAT IS RECEIVING MUCH ATTENTION IS THE NASA/MSFC SOLAR VECTOR MAGNETOGRAPH (SVM). TO MEET REQUIREMENTS, THE SVM MUST PROVIDE FULL SOLAR DISC MONITORING (32 ARC MIN) WITH 5 ARC SECOND SPATIAL RESOLUTIONIN THE NORMAL MONITORING MODE, THEN 5 ARC MINUTE FIELD OF VIEW AND 0.5 ARC SECOND SPATIAL RESOLUTION WHEN SPECIFIC ACTIVE AREAS ARE OF INTEREST. TO DO THIS, THE SVM SOLID STATE DETECTOR MUST BE A LARGE ARRAY (2048 X 2048 PIXELS OR LARGER) WHICH WILL PROVIDE MASSIVE AMOUNTS (5 X 108 BITS/MAGNETOGRAM) OF DATA FOR RETRIEVAL, PROCESSING, COMPRESSION, STORAGE AND RELAY TO GROUND STATIONS. BOTH OF THE ABOVE REQUIREMENTS ARE STATE-OF-THE-ART. IT IS PROPOSEDHEREIN TO PROVIDE PRELIMINARY CONCEPTUAL DESIGNS OF A COMPATIBLE LARGE ARRAY SOLID STATE DETECTOR AND DATA ACQUISITION AND CONTROL SYSTEM (DACS) FOR THE SVM.