Imagers for the magnetosphere, aurora, and plasmasphere

Journal Article · Tue Feb 01 04:00:00 EST 1994 · Optical Engineering; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1117/12.155986· OSTI ID:5020217

Frank, L A; Sigwarth, J B ^[1]; Williams, D J; Roelof, E C; Mitchell, D G; Gold, R E; Keath, E P; Mauk, B H; Meng, C I ^[2]; Carpenter, D L ^[3]; Hultqvist, B K; Lundin, R N ^[4]; Siscoe, G L ^[5]; Wolf, R A ^[6]; Gorney, D J; Schulz, M ^[7]; McComas, D J; Funsten, H O; Moore, K R; Smith, B W ^[8] ; Craven, J D ^[9]; Chiu, Y T ^[10]; Meier,

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1. Univ. of Iowa, Iowa City, IA (United States). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy
2. Johns Hopkins Univ., Laurel, MD (United States). Applied Physics Lab.
3. Stanford Univ., CA (United States). Starlab/Electrical Engineering Dept.
4. Swedish Inst. of Space Physics, Kiruna (Sweden)
5. Boston Univ., MA (United States). Center for Space Physics
6. Rice Univ., Houston, TX (United States). Space Physics and Astronomy Dept.
7. Aerospace Corp., Los Angeles, CA (United States). Space and Environmental Technology Center
8. Los Alamos National Lab., NM (United States)
9. Univ. of Alaska, Fairbanks, AK (United States). Geophysical Inst.
10. Lockheed Palo Alto Research Lab., CA (United States)

The authors present a small Explorer mission, Imagers for the Magnetosphere, Aurora, and Plasmasphere (IMAP), to provide the first global magnetospheric images that will allow a systematic study of major regions of the magnetosphere, their dynamics, and their interactions. The mission objective is to obtain simultaneous images of the inner magnetosphere (ring current and trapped particles), the plasma-sphere, the aurora, and auroral upflowing ions. The instruments are (1) a Low Energy Neutral Particle Imagers for imaging H and O atoms, separately, in the energy range of [approximately]1 to 30 keV, in several energy passbands; (2) an Energetic Neutral Particle Imager for imaging H atoms in the energy range [approximately]15 to 200 keV and, separately, O atoms in the energy range [approximately]60 to 200 keV, each in several energy pass-bands; (3) an Extreme-Ultraviolet imager to obtain images of the plasmasphere the distribution of cold He[sup +] by means of He[sup +] (30.4 nm) emissions; and (4) a Far-Ultraviolet Imaging Monochromator to provide images of the aurora and the geocorona. All images will be obtained with time and spatial resolutions appropriate to the global and macroscale structures to be observed. IMAP promises new quantitative analyses that will provide great advances in insight and knowledge of global and macroscale magnetospheric parameters.

• OSTI ID: 5020217
• Journal Information: Optical Engineering; (United States), Journal Name: Optical Engineering; (United States) Vol. 33:2; ISSN 0091-3286; ISSN OPEGAR
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

661320* -- Auroral
Ionospheric
& Magnetospheric Phenomena-- (1992-)
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
AURORAE
DYNAMICS
EARTH ATMOSPHERE
EARTH MAGNETOSPHERE
ELEMENTS
EXPLORER SATELLITES
HYDROGEN
ION DRIFT
MEASURING INSTRUMENTS
MECHANICS
NONMETALS
OXYGEN
REMOTE SENSING
SATELLITES