WUPPE: Ultraviolet Spectropolarimetry from Space Shuttle Missions

The Wisconsin Ultraviolet Photo-Polarimeter Experiment (WUPPE) was a spectropolarimetry instrument flown on Space Shuttle missions in December 1990 and March 1995. It provides a unique dataset of medium-resolution ultraviolet spectropolarimetry for various astronomical targets. The data was collected by NASA as part of the ASTRO instrument suite.

Use Cases

• Modeling interstellar dust properties based on ultraviolet polarization data.
• Analyzing the composition and geometry of circumstellar material around hot stars.
• Studying the physical processes in active galaxies and novae using spectropolarimetric signatures.

Strengths

• Provides a unique ultraviolet polarimetric dataset, one of the few of its kind.
• Data originates from a controlled space-based instrument on two Space Shuttle missions.
• Covers a range of scientifically significant targets like hot stars and the interstellar medium.

Limitations

• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• A low-resolution Lyot analyzer component reportedly did not produce scientifically useful data due to calibration problems.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Collected by the WUPPE instrument flown on Space Shuttle missions.

Time Range

Observations from missions in December 1990 and March 1995.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 18:11:21.734016; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Space-based observations; spatial coverage is not specified.