The Low Energy Neutral Atom Imager for IMAGE 

T. E. Moore (email: thomas.e.moore@gsfc.nasa.gov),  
D. J. Chornay, M.R. Collier, F.A. Herrero, J. Johnson, M.A. Johnson, 
J. W. Keller, J. F. Laudadio, J. F. Lobell, K. W. Ogilvie, P. Rozmarynowski
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771 USA

S. A. Fuselier, A. G. Ghielmetti, E. Hertzberg
Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center, Palo Alto, CA 94304 USA

D. C. Hamilton, R. Lundgren, P. Wilson, P. Walpole
University Of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 USA

T. M. Stephen, B. L. Peko, B. Van Zyl
University Of Denver, Denver, CO 80208 USA

P. Wurz
University Of Bern, Bern, CH-301 SWITZERLAND

J. M. Quinn
University Of New Hampshire, Durham, NH 03824 USA

G. R. Wilson
Mission Research Corp., Nashua, NH 03062 USA


           The Imager for Magnetosphere-to-Aurora Global Exploration (IMAGE)
will be launched early in the year 2000. It will be the first mission 
dedicated to imaging, with the capability to determine how the magnetosphere 
changes globally in response to solar storm effects in the solar wind, on 
time scales as short as a few minutes. The low energy neutral atom (LENA) 
imager uses a new atom-to-negative ion surface conversion technology to 
image the neutral atom flux and measure its composition (H and O) and energy 
distribution (10 to 750 eV). LENA uses electrostatic optics techniques for 
energy (per charge) discrimination and carbon foil time-of-flight techniques 
for mass discrimination. It has a 90 degree x 8 degree field-of-view in 12 
pixels, each nominally 8 degree x 8 degree. Spacecraft spin provides a total 
field-of-view of 90 degree x 360 degree, comprised of 12x45 pixels. LENA 
is designed to image fast neutral atom fluxes in its energy range, emitted 
by auroral ionospheres or the sun, or penetrating from the interstellar 
medium. It will thereby determine how superthermal plasma heating is 
distributed in space, how and why it varies on short time scales, and how 
this heating is driven by solar activity as reflected in solar wind 
conditions. 

_______________
Space Science Reviews, IMAGE Special Issue, Vol. 91, pp. 155-195, February, 2000