Welcome to MIRIS Homepage

The MIRIS (Multipurpose IR Imaging System) is the main payload of the third Korean scientific small satellite, STSAT-3. MIRIS consists of two near-infrared cameras. One is the Space Observation Camera (SOC) and the other is the Earth Observation Camera (EOC). The SOC is a near-IR (0.9–2.0 μm) imaging camera with an aperture of 80 mm and a field of view of 3.67° × 3.67°, using a 256 × 256 PICNIC sensor. The telescope part of the SOC is cooled down to 200 K by radiative cooling to reduce the thermal noise, and the Dewar part is cooled down to 90 K to ensure the best performance of the IR sensor. There are two scientific goals for the SOC:

  • To measure the absolute brightness and the fluctuation of the cosmic IR background (CIB) to study its origin and
  • To survey the Paα emission line along the Galactic plane to study the warm ionized medium.

There is a filter wheel with six filters in the Dewar to assist in the completion of these objectives. The SOC flight model was successfully launched in November of 2013 and performed observations by 2015 May.

Flight model of MIRIS SOC

Flight model of MIRIS SOC.

Open Time Observations Proposal Call

Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI) is pleased to invite the observation proposal using MIRIS (Multi-purpose InfraRed Imaging System), the main payload of Korea Science & Technology Satellite-3 (STSAT-3). The STSAT-3 was launched November 2013, and MIRIS has been carrying out the main missions:

  • Wide band (1.1 μm and 1.6 μm) observations of the wide fields (about 10°×10°) toward the north ecliptic and north and south galactic poles for the cosmic infrared background studies; and

  • Paα emission survey along the Galactic plane within the galactic latitude of ±3°.

For more details on MIRIS, please refer to Instrument, Surveys, and For Observers pages of this homepage.

MIRIS is optimized for the near-infrared wide-band observations of background or diffuse sources and for the Paα emission line observations. In the case of a proposal for point sources, please check whether the targets are bright and isolated enough not to be confused with other sources considering that the resolution of MIRIS is 52 arcseconds.

  1. Any researcher or research group interested in the observations with MIRIS can submit a proposal.

  2. Submission deadline: 5 June 2015

  3. Submission: Dr. Junghyun Pyo (jhpyo@kasi.re.kr), KASI

  4. Observation period: From 1 July to 30 Nov. 2015 (The period is liable to change depending on satellite operation by SaTReC, the responsible institution for satellite management.)

  5. Limit of number of observations: 30 times (One observation can obtain an image of about 3.7°×3.7° area with a single filter. If more number of observations are required, please discuss details with contact point before submit a proposal.)

  6. Before submitting a proposal, please check whether the targets were not already observed by MIRIS and are visible with MIRIS using the tools in For Observers page.

  7. The proposal should be prepared in MS Word format and contain the followings:

    • Title

    • PI and Co-PIs with affiliation of each person

    • Purpose of observation(s) and scientific justification

    • Required sensitivity and area

    • List of observation target(s) (name and coordinates of each target)

  8. The decision of acceptance will be made by the proposal review committee. Researches collaborating with Space Astronomy Group in KASI are recommended.

  9. Contact point: Dr. Wonyong Han, MIRIS Project PI, KASI (whan@kasi.re.kr, 010-3457-3219)