Magnetospheric cusp observations using the IMAGE satellite radio plasma imager

V.K. Henize, P.H. Reiff, B.W. Reinisch, S.F. Fung, J.L. Green, J. Goldstein


On March 25, 2000, the Imager for Magnetopause-to-Auroral Global Exploration
(IMAGE) satellite mission was launched with the Radio Plasma Imager (RPI) radio
sounder instrument onboard. Once deployed, the RPI began remote detection of
regions of differing plasma densities via the reflection of transmitted radio
waves. One of these regions is the magnetospheric polar cusp, which contains
solar wind particles injected onto magnetospheric field lines by the process of
dayside reconnection. Using data from the first month of RPI active sounding
operation, a candidate cusp plasma echo return was analyzed to confirm that
these signatures are in fact due to cusp plasmas. Associated in situ
measurements also taken by the RPI instrument, as well as theoretical ray traces
within an idealized model magnetosphere, strongly indicate that the RPI can and
does remotely observe particle densities within the cusp region.

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Advances in Space Research, Vol. 30, No. 10, pp. 2267-2272, 2002