The Diffuse Ultraviolet Foreground
arXiv:1307.5232 · doi:10.1007/s10509-013-1612-1
Abstract
Ultraviolet observations from low Earth orbit (LEO) have to deal with a foreground comprised of airglow and zodiacal light which depend on the look direction and on the date and time of the observation. We have used all-sky observations from the GALEX spacecraft to find that the airglow may be divided into a baseline dependent on the sun angle and a component dependent only on the time from local midnight. The zodiacal light is observable only in the near ultraviolet band (2321 Ã ) of GALEX and is proportional to the zodiacal light in the visible but with a color of 0.65 indicating that the dust grains are less reflective in the UV.
6 pages, 7 figures