Grant: Engage Grants Program

At Earth's surface, we are protected from many dangerous phenomena in space by its magnetic field and atmosphere. However, many aspects of modern society depend on placing humans or sensitive equipment in space where they may be exposed to damaging levels of radiation. It has been realized since the 1950s that the magnetic field itself results in the storage of energetic particles in the Van Allen radiation belts. Some of these particles slowly leak into the upper atmosphere to cause a very faint type of blue aurora called ""proton aurora"". Despite these phenomena being known of for a long time, they remain poorly understood, and are still the target of major research efforts such as the recent NASA Van Allen Storm Probes mission. To study aurora from the ground, and in particular the very faint proton aurora, cutting edge optical instrumentation is needed. Keo Scientific has been at the leading edge of developing such instrumentation and has established a niche for Canada in this high-tech design area, as well as viable markets for high-end imaging products. Past generations of instruments have been limited by the high cost of sensitive, cooled, charge-coupled devices (CCDs: similar to the detectors in mass market cameras but of high quality and specialized characteristics). They have usually had one CCD and an array of filters to be mechanically moved in front of it in order to measure the various wavelengths of auroal light. The prototype Keo Sentry Quad imager instead produces four images simultaneously, allowing faster operation and true hyperspectral (multiple colour) sensing. There is demand in the research marketplace for imaging of proton auroras, which Keo Quad should do well. Athabasca University Geospace Observatory, under very dark skies where the proton auroras peak, is the ideal place to do final development of the Keo Quad. Our tests during the dark winter nights of 2015-2106 should upgrade the Keo Quad prototype to be the best option for a wide range of imaging applications for potential Keo customers.