A document describes a coastal ocean color instrument for geostationary orbit that meets the science requirements within a size, mass, and cost package that is acceptable within current budgetary constraints. This work advances the instrument design concept for the Coastal Ocean Ecosystem Dynamics Imager (COEDI) for the GEOCAPE (Geostationary Coastal and Air Pollution Events) Tier 2 Earth Science and Applications mission. This ongoing study indicates that a 2-slit sensor has the greatest possibility of reducing instrument size significantly and improving performance. The 2-slit concept permits the co-adding of iFOV observations from slits that are spaced close together, which permits the reduction in aperture.

A dual-slit design is being considered for the COEDI sensor. A roof-mirror will be placed directly behind the two 18-μm slits to separate the paths. The intention is to have the fields separated by three pixels or less.

This work was done by James Smith, Catherine Marx, Jason Budinoff, Antonio Mannino, and Oscar Martinez of Goddard Space Flight Center. GSC-16419-1