Keo Scientific Ltd. - Custom design and manufacture of high sensitivity scientific cameras and other imaging instrumentation solutions

Company Profile

Keo Scientific Ltd. designs and builds highly sensitive scientific instrumentation capable of wavelength-resolved imaging of sub-visual emissions from the upper atmosphere. Imaging systems can be designed to satisfy unique customer requirements, or one may choose from a wide range of highly flexible existing configurations that meet a wide range of strategic, tactical and scientific objectives. In addition to CCD imagers and photometers, Keo has expertise with riometers and radio receivers.

Keo Scientific Ltd. was founded in January 2004 by a group of Science and Engineering personnel from the University of Calgary. Collectively, this group has experience with the design and use of specialized scientific optical instrumentation going back to the mid 1970s. Keo Scientific's founders have expertise ranging from space and atmospheric research to electrical engineering to the deployment and maintenance of distributed imaging arrays.

Keo Scientific Ltd. recently acquired Keo Consultants of Brookline, MA from Dr. Robert Eather. Keo Consultants has in the past designed and built camera systems for customers such as the US Air Force, NASA, UC Berkeley, and Japanese, Korean, Italian, Brazilian, Norwegian, Swedish, and Finnish research groups. Dr. Eather's expertise remains available through his current role as Keo Scientific's Senior Consultant.

Keo Scientific Ltd. is based in Calgary, Alberta Canada. It has a modern optical laboratory facility that supports the design, assembly, testing, and calibration of a wide variety of imaging instrumentation. Through a "Spin Off" agreement Keo shares some personnel and lab space with the University of Calgary's Institute for Space Research, but Keo Scientific Ltd. is an autonomous and independent company.

Keo Scientific Ltd. personnel are a part of the team at The University of Calgary's Institute for Space Research (ISR) that is developing the ground-based all-sky imager component of the upcoming NASA THEMIS program. As part of this exciting program, the University of Calgary will deploy, operate, and retrieve the data from a network of all-sky imagers deployed from the East coast of Canada to the border between the Yukon and Alaska. Data from these 16 imagers, and four more in Alaska, will be merged together in mosaics and ultimately used to create movies of the aurora with temporal and spatial resolution and geographic coverage never before achieved. A prototype stand-alone imaging system (including both the camera and an all-weather enclosure) has already been developed and deployed, and is currently generating images accessible in real-time via the Internet. Four additional systems are currently being assembled and will be deployed in 2004, with the remaining 15 camera pods to be deployed by 2006.

Keo Scientific personnel also played a key part in the development of NORSTAR (The Northern Solar Terrestrial Array) — a world-class optical and radio facility designed to remote sense auroral precipitation on a continental scale. NORSTAR consists of three CCD-based all-sky imagers located along a meridian in Northern Canada, four Meridian Scanning Photometers, as well as 13 riometers. The network will see the addition of seven more all-sky imagers during the next 1-2 years. The ASIs and MSPs collect data at four auroral wavelengths (471, 558, 630, 486 nm), at a cadence of 10-60 s/image. Data, including calibration data, from all instruments are entered into a special database which can be easily browsed and searched using optical pattern recognition techniques developed by ISR personnel.

Key Personnel

DR. TROND S. TRONDSEN started his career in the field of scientific imaging at the University of Tromso, Norway in 1988. There, he designed, implemented, and characterized a computer controlled digital all-sky camera system for the observation of the aurora borealis. He wrote the real-time control software as well as a complete image processing suite at a time when no such program suite was commercially available. He took part in the design of the European Space Agency's AURIO visible and ultra-violet auroral satellite-based CCD imagers. He participated in the preliminary design phase of the ultra-violet auroral imagers on the Swedish satellite Freja, successfully launched in October 1992. He assisted in the design of the Polar Camera (PoCa), a set of two weatherproof imager pods for ground-based observations of the aurora from Eureka, Ellesmere Island. This work included research into image compression algorithms and recommendation of preferred option based on certain design criteria, writing low-level software handling data communication between computer and cameras, writing an ephemerides software package, as well as doing the complete mechanical design of the camera units. He is a Participating Scientist on the NASA IMAGE mission (the first MIDEX mission) and assisted with the optical design of the Wideband UV Imaging Camera (WIC). Dr. Trondsen graduated in1998 from the University of Tromso, Norway with a Ph.D. in Cosmic Geophysics, after having conducted all his Ph.D. related research at the Institute for Space Research, University of Calgary. For his Ph.D., he developed (optics, electronics, hardware, software) a highly portable intensified imaging system (The Portable Auroral Imager) and applied it to outdoor-based high-resolution auroral studies in the Canadian arctic, publishing findings in refereed scientific journals. Since 1998 Dr. Trondsen has been working as an Imaging Specialist at the University of Calgary's Institute for Space Research, designing the NOSTAR all-sky imaging systems (based on Keo Consultants' all-sky cameras) and writing all control software (Linux, C). He is also a member of the U of Calgary-led ground-based segment for the upcoming NASA THEMIS mission, which involves deploying and networking an array of 20 all-sky cameras spread out across northern regions. Dr. Trondsen is President of Keo Scientific Ltd. He is a Norwegian citizen who holds permanent residency status in Canada and has a NATO security clearance.

DR. ROBERT H. EATHER, the founder of the original Keo Consultants, has designed and developed low-lightlevel imagers for auroral and airglow research for almost 30 years. Dr. Eather specializes in low-light-level (LLL) optical problems. Research and developmental work has been primarily in the fields of LLL spectrophotometric, photometric, television and camera systems, and associated special-purpose optics. His products range from custom lens systems to complete turnkey imaging and recording systems (~40 built in the past 5 years), including customized software development. Dr. Eather has also conducted basic research into various aspects of the physics of the low-, mid- and high-latitude ionosphere, including correlated experiments using rocket and satellite data. In addition, work has been carried out on optical calibration standards, color image intensification, lidar systems, space debris detection, and Imax/Omnimax cameras and filming. Dr. Eather was the Director of Photography on the IMAX movie Solar Max. Publications: 70 publications in refereed scientific and technical journals on auroral and magnetospheric physics, and low-light-level optical topics as well as numerous publications in commercial magazines on auroral topics.

MR. KEVIN RASMUSSEN manages Keo's business operations. His education as a Mechanical Engineer (BSc from U of C) and an MBA (U of A, 1993) provides him with a unique combination of technical and business skills. This, combined with his experience in the manufacturing, high tech. and professional services sectors, allows him to bring a broad and seasoned perspective to Keo's business and operations. Although the cornerstone of Keo's success is the scientific knowledge and experience that goes into the design and construction of the instruments, Kevin feels that an efficient operational structure is necessary to allow Keo to maintain top-notch quality, reliable delivery schedules, and highly responsive customer service. It is his goal to ensure that Keo's customers are provided with the best possible experience every time they interact with the company - from the initial inquiry to the order, delivery, installation and ongoing support.

DR. SANDY MURPHREE has a Ph.D. from Rice University (1975). His background is in experimental space physics working with datasets obtained from several satellite borne low-light level imagers. Dr. Murphree, a founding partner of Keo Scientific Ltd., has been the lead investigator of auroral imager instrumentation on several recent satellite missions. For example, in 1986 the Swedish Viking satellite carried a new generation ultraviolet imager utilizing advanced image acquisition technology. Global auroral images were acquired as fast as every 20 seconds for the first time opening up the possibility of doing large scale dynamic studies. This was followed by an improved UV imager flown on the Swedish Freja satellite in 1992. Images were acquired every 6 seconds in this mission, allowing high temporal and spatial resolution studies. The datasets acquired represent one of the finest set of two-dimensional auroral images in the world and today provide a unique database for understanding the magnetospheric processes which result in the aurora.

DR. LEROY COGGER has a Ph.D. from the University of Saskatchewan(1968). Dr. Cogger retired from the University of Calgary in 1997 and was awarded the honorary titles of Professor Emeritus and Faculty Professor (a designation that recognizes the expertise and continuing high calibre of research being done by some retired Professors). In this capacity, he continues an active research program. Dr. Cogger has for years been the leader of an active research group under the auspices of the Institute for Space Research at the University of Calgary. The research involves ground-based and space-borne measurements of the aurora and upper atmosphere. As part of the Canadian Space Agency's CANOPUS network of ground based instruments, Dr. Cogger was the Principal Investigator of an automated all-sky imager in northern Manitoba from which short-term spatial and temporal variations of the aurora in the auroral oval were studied from 1986 to 1998. This imager was the seed of what later was to become the NORSTAR network of all-sky imagers. Dr. Cogger was the Director of the Institute for Space Research from 1989 to 2002. He is a founding partner of Keo Scientific Ltd.