Summary
- IMAGE will be launched in January, 2000
- RPI data modeled by ray tracing calculations
Echo times are extremely sensitive to density variations
- RPI measurements will provide:
- Plasmapause, cusp, and magnetopause positions
- Line-of-sight electron density profiles and in situ density
- Density distributions
- RPI measurements permit quantitative studies of magnetospheric
- Plasma structures and their temporal variations
- Evolution with substorm phase and solar wind pressure
- RPI measurements would significantly enhance our understanding of
global magnetosphere configuration and dynamics
- IMAGE Web site: http://image.gsfc.nasa.gov/