Rochus, Pierre ; Auchère, Frédéric ; Berghmans, David ; Harra, Louise ; Schmutz, Werner ; Schühle, Udo

Poster presented at AGU Fall Meeting 2019 on 2019-12-10

Abstract: The Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) is part of the remote sensing instrument package of the ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter mission that will explore the inner heliosphere and observe the Sun from vantage points close to the Sun and out-of-the-ecliptic. EUI aims at improving our understanding of the structure and dynamics of the solar atmosphere. EUI will take images of the solar atmosphere, globally as well as at high resolution, and from high solar latitude perspectives. EUI consists of 3 telescopes that are optimized to image in Lyman-a and EUV 17.4nm and 30.4 nm to provide a coverage from chromosphere up to corona. EUI is designed to cope with the strong constraints that Solar Orbiter has as a deep space mission. Limited telemetry availability is compensated by state-of-the-art image compression, on board image processing and event selection. The imposed power limitations and potentially harsh radiation environment lead to the usage of novel CMOS sensors. As the unobstructed field of view of the telescopes needs to protrude through the spacecraft heat shield, the apertures were kept as small as possible. This lead to a systematic effort to optimize the throughput of every optical element and the reduction of noise levels in the sensor. In this paper we review the design of the two elements of the EUI instrument: the Optical Bench System and the Common Electronic Box. Particular attention is also given to the on board software, the intended operations, the ground software and the foreseen data products. EUI will bring unique science opportunities thanks to its specific design, its viewpoint and thanks to the planned synergies with the other Solar Orbiter instruments. We highlight in particular science opportunities brought by the out-of-ecliptic vantage point of the solar poles, the high resolution imaging of the high chromosphere and corona, and the connection to the outer corona as observed by coronagraphs.

Keyword(s): Solar Orbiter ; EUI
Note: SH21D-3291 session