The multichannel thermosphere-ionosphere photometer scanner (MTIPS) UV photometer instrument

The Earth’s coupled ionosphere and thermosphere play a critical role in the Earth’s Heliospheric system, providing a pathway for energy from the solar wind and magnetosphere to enter the Earth’s upper atmosphere. Ionospheric disturbances and variability caused by this energy occur on timescales from seconds to years and play a crucial role in space weather, with impacts on the performance and reliability of space-borne and ground-based technological systems used for communication, navigation, and surveillance. The Multichannel Thermosphere-Ionosphere Photometer Scanner (MTIPS) instrument is a CubeSat scale instrument for narrowband photometric measurements of excited atomic oxygen and molecular nitrogen species. MTIPS will provide simultaneous high-sensitivity Vacuum Ultra-Violet (VUV) photometer measurements of key atomic oxygen (135.6 nm) and molecular nitrogen Lyman-Birge-Hopfield (LBH) band emissions for targeted (135.6 nm, LBH, and background) nightside, dayside, and auroral zone investigations of the thermosphere and ionosphere.