Perez, J. D., D. L. Gallagher, Mei-Ching Fok, T. E. Moore, and G.
Wilson,  Deconvolution of Neutral Atom Images of the Earth's
Magnetosphere, presented at the American Geophysical Union Fall
Meeting, San Francisco, December 15-19, 1996.
 
 Deconvolution of Neutral Atom Images of the Earth's Magnetosphere
 
 J. D. Perez, D. L. Gallagher, Mei-Ching Fok, T. E. Moore, and G.
Wilson
 
Neutral atom images of the ring current and cusp are deconvolved to reveal
the underlying source structure.  The method uses spline expansions and a
Bayesian statistical approach to obtain a solution that fits the data with a
minimum departure from a function representing prior knowledge of the
source.  Images at several neutral atom energies of the storm-time ring
current from a simulation of a geomagnetic storm in October 1995 show how
equatorial pitch angle distributions can be obtained from the simulated
images.  Low energy neutral atom images of the cusp and polar regions are
deconvolved to give three-dimensional spatial fluxes assuming isotropic
pitch angle distributions.  The effects of different choices of the prior
function and of different viewing positions of the instrument are illustrated.