Deconvolving energetic neutral atom images

J. D. Perez (Physics Department, Auburn University, Auburn, AL 36849;
  (334) 844-4264; email: perez@physics.auburn.edu)

Mei-Ching Fok and Thomas E. Moore (Laboratory for Extraterrestrial
  Physics, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771)

The New Millennium Magnetosphere: Integrating Imaging, Discrete
  Observations, and Global Simulations, Sixth Huntsville Modeling Workshop,
  Guntersville, Alabama, 26-30 October 1998.


The Imager for Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global Exploration (IMAGE) is
scheduled for launch on January 1, 2000. Among the several techniques
it will employ to image the inner magnetosphere and magnetopause is
the acquisition of energetic neutral atom images. These energetic
neutrals formed in the Earth's magnetosphere by charge exchange
between an energetic ion and a slow neutral escape without absorption.
Thus the observed object, the Earth's magnetosphere, is transparent,
but the interpretation of the observed image is not. We will describe
a method to deconvolve the observed images and thereby to obtain the
underlying distribution of ions. To illustrate the method, we will
use the Fok/Moore model of the ring current ions to produce simulated
data. By deconvolving these synthesized images, we will show how the
energetic neutral images to be obtained by IMAGE will help resolve
scientific issues concerning the Earth's magnetosphere.