Magnetospheric Imaging — The Image Prime Mission, 2003

The Imager for Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global Exploration (IMAGE) is a NASA Explorer mission that is the first space mission dedicated to imaging of the Earth's magnetosphere. IMAGE was launched from Vandenberg AFB into an elliptical polar orbit by a Delta II launch vehicle on March 25, 2000. The two-year prime sci­ entific mission of IMAGE began on May 25, 2000 after instrument commissioning was successfully completed. IMAGE has now been approved for operation until October 1,2005, and an additional two-year extension is now being considered by NASA. The papers in this volume represent many of the scientific results obtained dur­ ing the IMAGE prime mission and include some of the early correlative research with ground-based measurements, measurements from other spacecraft such as Cluster II, and relevant theory and modeling programs. All of the reported work is related to the overall IMAGE science objective: How does the magnetosphere respond globally to the changing conditions in the solar wind? IMAGE addresses this question with multi-spectral imaging of most of the important plasma pop­ ulations of the inner magnetosphere, combined with radio sounding of gradients of total plasma content. The new experimental techniques fall into the following areas: neutral atom imaging (NAI) over an energy range from 10 eV to 500 keY for detection of ionospheric outflow, the plasma sheet, and the ring current; far ultraviolet (FUV) imaging at 121-190 nm for detection of precipitating protons and the global aurora; extreme ultraviolet (EUV) imaging at 30.

The First Two Years of IMAGE; J.L. Burch. Extreme Ultraviolet Imager Observations of the Structure and Dynamics of the Plasmasphere; B.R. Sandel, J. Goldstein, D.L. Gallagher, M. Spasojevic. Plasmaspheric Images with In Situ Observations; M. Moldwin, B. Sandel, M. Thomsen, R. Elphic. Global Imaging of O+ from IMAGE/HENA; D.G. Mitchell, P.C. Brandt, E.C. Roelof, D.C. Hamilton, S.B. Mende. Global ENA IMAGE Simulations; M.-C. Fok, T.E. Moore, G.R. Wilson, J.D. Perez, X.X. Zhang, P.C. Brandt, D.G. Mitchell, E.C. Roelof, J.-M. Jahn, C.J. Pollock, R.A. Wolf. Ring Current Energy Input and Decay; J.U. Kozyra, M.W. Liemohn. Telescopic and Microscopic Views of the Magnetosphere: Multispacecraft Observations; D.N. Baker. The Role and Contributions of Energetic Neural Atom (ENA) Imaging in Magnetospheric Substorm Research; C.J. Pollock, P.C. Brandt, J.L. Burch, M.G. Henderson, J.-M. Jahn, D.J. McComas, S.B. Mende, D.G. Mitchell, J.D. Perez, G.D. Reeves, E.E. Scime, R.M. Skoug, M. Thomsen, P. Valek. An Overview of Results from RPI on IMAGE; J.L. Green, B.W. Reinisch. Global Imaging of Proton and Electron Aurorae in the Far Ultraviolet; S.B. Mende, H.U. Frey, T.J. Immel, J.-C. Gerard, B. Hubert, D.S. Fuselier. Summary of Quantitative Interpretation of IMAGE Far Ultraviolet Auroral Data; H.U. Frey, T.J. Immel, S.B. Mende, J.-C. Gerard, B. Hubert, S. Habraken, J. Spann, G.R. Gladstone, D.V. Bisikalo, V.I. Shematovich. Cusp Dynamics and Ionospheric Outflow; S.A. Fuselier, S.B. Mende, T.E. Moore, H.U. Frey, S.M. Petrinec, E.S. Claflin, M.R. Collier. Dayside Proton Aurora: Comparisons between Global MHD Simulations and IMAGE Observations; J. Berchem, S.A. Fuslier, S. Petrinec, H.U.Frey, J.L. Burch. Heliosphere-Geosphere Interactions Using Low Energy Neutral Atom Imaging; T.E. Moore, M.R. Collier, M.-C. Fok, S.A. Fuselier, H. Khan, W. Lennartsson, D.G. Simpson, G.R. Wilson, M.O. Chandler.