Development of Science Data-Handling Unit (SHU) for Global Lightning and Sprite Measurements (GLIMS) Onboard Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) of ISS

抄録

A project to observe lightning and sprites from the International Space Station (ISS), with altitude of 407 km and inclination of 51.6°, is planned for 2012. GLIMS (global lightning and sprite measurements) is an instrument designed for this project, and it includes a CMOS camera, photomultipliers, a VLF receiver, and a VHF interferometer. This is the first project for simultaneous measurements of lightning, sprites, and radiowaves from lightning simultaneously. The sensors used for GLIMS were developed based on previous satellite projects. However, for this project, the sensors used needed to be synchronized, and controlled through the Japanese experiment module (JEM) interface. A science data-handling unit (SHU) was newly developed for this purpose; it included a function for suppressing data traffic using a high-speed lossless compression code (HIREW).