First Results From the IMAGE Mission

J. L. Burch
Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, TX 78228

The Imager for Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global Exploration (IMAGE) has obtained the 
first comprehensive multispectral global images of the Earth's magnetosphere. The 
two-year IMAGE mission began with launch on March 25, 2000, when the satellite was 
placed into an elliptical polar orbit with an apogee altitude of 7.2 Earth radii 
and a perigee altitude of 1000 km.  Continuous imaging is performed using 
(1) ultraviolet emissions from auroral electron and proton bombardment of the 
atmosphere, from precipitating energetic hydrogen atoms, and from low-energy helium 
ions in the plasmasphere; (2) neutral atoms produced by charge exchange between 
magnetospheric ions in three energy bands (10 eV - 1000 eV, 1 - 30 keV, and 
20 - 500 keV) and the hydrogen gas of the exosphere; and (3) radio sounding of 
plasma gradients and boundaries from the ionosphere to the magnetopause.  New 
results have been obtained on (1) the relative global configurations of the electron 
and proton auroras, (2) the dynamics of the plasmasphere during magnetic storms and 
substorms, (3) substorm injection of plasma into the inner magnetosphere, 
(4) spatial relationships between the plasmasphere and ring current during magnetic 
storms, (5) the neutral atom component of the solar wind, and (7) the remote 
detection of the plasmapause, cusp and magnetopause.

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Presented at the Fall American Geophysical Union Meeting, 
San Francisco, CA., December 15-19, 2000