Design study of a hosted Arctic imager for weather and climate monitoring in the polar regions

A Hosted Arctic Imager (HAI) concept is currently being investigated as part of ESA’s Polaris program. HAI intends to fulfil the needs for providing weather and atmospheric services in the polar regions enabling e.g. near-real-time observations of Atmospheric Motion Vectors of the Arctic and Nordic regions, similar to the measurements offered by its Meteosat counterparts in GEO, such as SEVIRI on MSG and FCI on MTG. The compact hosted-payload multispectral imager operates from a High Elliptical Orbit in 12 spectral bands from 0.4μm to 13.3μm at a Ground Sampling Distance of 1-3km. The optical concepts employs a split design into a wavelength-optimized VIS and a (N)IR telescope, built as all-metal free-form optics, where a hole in the first mirror of the (N)IR telescope presents the entrance aperture of the VIS telescope. Our instrument design maximizes the re-use of heritage technology, e.g. for detectors, scanner, and calibration elements, in order to enable a low-risk fast-track development program.