The RAIDS experiment is an optical remote sensing platform consisting of eight sensors (spectrographs, spectrometers, and photometers) covering the wavelength range 550 angstroms to 8744 angstroms. RAIDS employs a mechanical scan platform to view the Earth's limb and measure vertical profiles of atmospheric dayglow and nightglow from the mesosphere to the upper regions of the F region ionosphere (75 - 750 km). RAIDS will be flown on the NOAA J weather satellite through the auspices of the Air Force Space Test Program (STP). The RAIDS wavelength and altitude coverage allows remote sensing of the major, and many minor constituents in the thermosphere and ionosphere. These measurements will be used as part of a proof-of-concept for remote sensing of ionospheric and neutral density profiles. The RAIDS database will be used to study composition, thermal structure and couplings between the mesosphere, thermosphere and ionosphere. RAIDS is a joint venture of the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) and The Aerospace Corporation. This paper describes the subset of RAIDS instruments developed at NRL covering the far to near ultraviolet (1300 angstroms - 4000 angstroms). A companion paper describes the balance of the experiment complement.
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