Purpose and area of application

VPS-3M is designed for the automatic remote registration of Earth atmosphere and ionosphere optical emissions, caused by thunderstorm and seismic activities, in 390-900 nm spectral region from the board of piloted and unpiloted space platforms, particularly, International Space Station (ISS).
The system enables automatic simultaneously registration of spatial, temporal and spectral-energy characteristics of short light impulses in broad intensity range.

Technical opportunities

VPS-3M allows:

• to acquire the images and radiation parameters of Red Sprite phenomenon in spectral region of 650-750 nm;
• to acquire the images and radiation parameters of Blue Jets phenomenon in spectral region of 390- to acquire the images and radiation parameters of atmospheric emissions in spectral region of 390-900 nm;
• to make a record of energy-temporal distributions of phenomena under studying and lightning as well;
• to count the number of lightning discharges per second and the number of recorded atmospheric emissions;
• interaction, data and commands exchange with the telemetric and communication channels.
  

Advantages

Automatic simultaneously registration of spatial, temporal and spectral-energy characteristics of short light impulses in broad intensity range.
Up now VFS-3M system was tested and carried by the freight spaceship to the board of Russian segment of ISS.