Smith, M. F., Low Energy Neutral Atom Imaging, presented at the
American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, San Francisco, December
15-19, 1996.

Low Energy Neutral Atom Imaging

M. Smith (NASA/GSFC, Greenbelt, MD  20771; 301-286-9342; 3-mail: 
smith@lepmfs.gsfc.nasa.gov) on behalf of the LENA team.

Neutral atom imaging allows plasma populations to be remotely sensed
enabling instantaneous images of Earth magnetosphere and ionosphere to
be obtained.  The technique has been widely discussed particularly at
high energies, however, much of the magnetosphere/ionosphere plasma
population lies at energies below 1 keV.  The most developed
techniques to image such low energy neutral atoms uses a surface
interaction technique to convert the neutrals into negatively charged
ions.  In this paper we discuss the design of such an instrument
(LENA) which is to be launched on NASA's IMAGE mission in the year
2000.