Deconvolution of Energetic Neutral Atom Images of the Earth's Magnetosphere J. D. Perez Physics Department, Auburn University, Alabama 36849 perez@physics.auburn.edu Universities Space Research Association, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771 fok@gsfc.nasa.gov T. E. Moore Laboratory for Extraterrestrial Physics, Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771 thomas.e.moore@gsfc.nasa.gov A method for deconvolving equatorial pitch angle distributions of energetic neutral atoms from images from the instruments on the IMAGE satellite is described and illustrated using simulated data obtained from calculated models of ring current flux. The unknown flux is expanded in terms of cubic B splines and Legendre polynomials. The expansion coefficients are obtained from the solution of a linear set of equations that select the smoothest solution that fits the data. In this way, all the information that is contained in the data is extracted but no more. _______________ Space Science Reviews, IMAGE Special Issue, Vol. 91, pp. 421-436, February, 2000