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Persistent URL http://purl.org/net/epubs/work/11260564
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Record Id 11260564
Title Measurements of the Gegenschein brightness from the Solar Mass Ejection Imager (SMEI)
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Abstract The Gegenschein is a faint diffuse component of the zodiacal light centered upon the antisolar point; this has now been viewed by the Solar Mass Ejection Imager (SMEI) for over 5 years. SMEI provides unprecedented near-full-sky photometric maps each 102-minute orbit, using data from 3 unfiltered CCD cameras. Its 0.1\% photometric precision enables observation over long periods of time, of heliospheric structures having surface brightness down to several S10's (an S10 is the equivalent brightness of a 10th magnitude star spread over one square degree). When individual bright stars are removed from the maps and an empirical sidereal background subtracted, the residue is dominated by the zodiacal light. The sky coverage and duration of these measurements enables a definitive characterization. We describe the analysis method for these data, characterize the average Gegenschein brightness distribution, present empirical formulae describing its shape, and discuss its variation with time.
Organisation SSTD , STFC
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Language English (EN)
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Journal Article AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts (2008). 2008