IMAGE Observations of the Bastille Day Storm in Energetic Neutral Atom Images

Donald Mitchell and the HENA Team

During the Bastille Day Storm of July 15 and 16, 2000, the IMAGE spacecraft
returned unprecedented images of the ring current during the sudden
commencement, storm onset, main phase, and recovery phases.  The data are
consistent with the peak ring current flux being located between L = 3 and L
= 4.  The pre-onset substorm activity, onset, and main phase are all
associated with intense ion precipitation into the atmosphere, and the
recovery phase with a steadily weakening, nearly symmetric ring current.
The ENA data will be discussed in the context of Far Ultra-Violet auroral
images of the storm, also taken by the IMAGE spacecraft.

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