Calibration techniques for the NASA ICON Extreme Ultraviolet Spectrograph (EUV)

The Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON) is a NASA Heliophysics Explorer Mission designed to study the ionosphere. ICON will examine the Earth's upper atmosphere to better understand the relationship between Earth weather and space-weather drivers. ICON will accomplish its science objectives using a suite of 4 instruments, one of which is the Extreme Ultraviolet Spectrograph (EUV). EUV will measure daytime altitude intensity profile and spatial distribution of ionized oxygen emissions (O + at 83.4 nm and 61.7 nm) on the limb in the thermosphere (100 to 500 km tangent altitude). EUV is a single-optic imaging spectrometer that observes in the extreme ultraviolet region of the spectrum. In this paper, we describe instrumental performance calibration measurement techniques and data analysis for EUV. Various measurements including Lyman-α scattering, instrumental and component efficiency, and field-of-view alignment verification were done in custom high-vacuum ultraviolet calibration facilities. Results from the measurements and analysis will be used to understand the instrument performance during the in-flight calibration and observations after launch.