Magnetospheric Research
Over the last 30 years magnetospheric missions use insitu measurements exclusively
Auroral imagers have been our only global view of magnetospheric dynamics
- NASA missions: ISIS (1969), DE (1982), POLAR (1996)
Mission science objectives have been narrowly defined to an understanding of specific plasma regions or dynamics
Until now there has been no mission to the “global magnetosphere”
Imager for Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global Exploration (IMAGE)
- All known imaging techniques are used
- Science objectives study global phenomena and look at the connections between individual plasma regions