Satellite-based auroral tomography and time-varying volume reconstruction

Tomography, originally developed to observe the internal structure of a human body in medical applications, can also be applied to research in Space Science applications. An upcoming satellite mission incorporates two imagers for auroral observation in the upper atmosphere. For this mission, development of auroral volume reconstruction using tomographic imaging is useful for understanding the internal structure of auroras. We have shown that beam-pixel clipping in image reconstruction improves the quality of reconstructed images, compared to previous techniques. The goal is to develop a suitable algorithm for auroral volume reconstruction using auroral images measured from satellite-borne optical instruments. We have demonstrated that weighting factor approximation in algebraic methods plays a crucial role in the quality of volume reconstruction. We also have evaluated the effectiveness of this algorithm with measured images of known volumes using perspective projections. In addition, a time-varying volume reconstruction scheme is discussed where auroras move over time