Swap: AN EUV Imager for Solar Monitoring on Board of PROBA2

PROBA2 is an ESA technology demonstration mission to be launched in 2007. The prime instrument on board of Proba2 is SWAP (Sun Watcher using Active Pixel System detector and Image Processing), a full disk solar imager with a bandpass filter centred at 17.5 nm (Fe IX–XI) and a fast cadence of ≈ 1 min. The telescope is based on an off‐axis Ritchey Chretien design while an extreme ultraviolet (EUV) enhanced APS CMOS will be used as a detector. As the prime goal of the SWAP is solar monitoring and advance warning of Coronal Mass Ejections (CME), on‐board intelligence will be implemented. Image recognition software using experimental algorithms will be used to detect CMEs during the first phase of eruption so the event can be tracked by the spacecraft without human intervention.