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Imager for Magnetopause-To- Aurora Global Exploration (IMAGE)

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Imager for Magnetopause-To- Aurora Global Exploration (IMAGE) Imager for Magnetopause-to- Aurora Global Exploration (IMAGE) Senior Review 2003 James L. Burch, Principal Investigator Thomas E. Moore, Project Scientist James L. Green, Deputy Project Scientist Stephen A. Fuselier, Co-Investigator Southwest Research Institute San Antonio, TX April 30, 2003 Table of Contents team has never claimed any proprietary rights or placed any limitations on use of the data. IMAGE has also contributed data to the NOAA space fore- casting activity through the ancillary real-time Executive Summary 1 transmission of the entire IMAGE data set in addi- I. Science 2 tion to its baseline store-and-forward data mode. A. Accomplishments to Date 2 Extended Mission. IMAGE is now in its ex- B. Extended Mission to 2007 6 tended mission phase, during which the migration C. Relevance to Space Science of the line of apsides toward lower latitudes (at a Enterprise Strategic Plan 16 rate of 50 deg/yr) has resulted in a change in imag- D. Relevance to the 2002 ing perspective that supports a range of innovative Sun-Earth Connection Roadmap 16 studies that could not be performed from the high- E. Technology Development for Future Mission 19 and mid-latitude apogee of the prime mission. As F. Cooperative Research with Other Missions, apogee continues to evolve to higher latitudes in the Ground-Based Facilities, and Modeling 19 southern hemisphere, investigations of hemispheric II. Technical and Budget 20 differences (e.g., in auroral phenomena) will be A. IMAGE Technical Status as of 30 April 2003 20 possible. In addition, because the extended mission B. Data Availability and Dissemination 23 is taking place during the declining phase of the C. Budget 26 solar cycle, IMAGE can observe the global effects D. References 27 of recurrent storms and compare them with those associated with the CME-driven storms observed III. Education and Public Outreach 29 during the prime mission. IMAGE will also con- A. Accomplishments 29 tinue to provide real-time auroral imaging data to B. Future Plans 31 NOAA and other interested institutions. Status of the IMAGE Mission. The IMAGE Appendices Appendix A: Budget Summary spacecraft and all instruments are operating nomi- Appendix B: Acronyms nally, and there is every expectation that they will continue to do so for many more years. The preces- sion of apogee to the southern hemisphere will not EXECUTIVE SUMMARY affect operations in the baseline store-and-forward data transmission mode. However, for reception of The Imager for Magnetopause-to-Aurora real-time data, which are transmitted continuously Global Exploration (IMAGE) is the first satellite for space forecasting purposes as well as for back- mission dedicated to imaging Earth’s magneto- ing up occasional data loss in the store-and-forward sphere. Using advanced energetic neutral atom and mode, a southern hemisphere receiving station will ultraviolet imaging techniques along with omnidi- have to be used. rectional radio sounding, IMAGE has provided the IMAGE Data System. The IMAGE data can first global views of the structure and dynamics of be accessed from centralized web sites/servers at plasmas in the inner magnetosphere and has GSFC (both at the IMAGE Science and Mission achieved the full set of scientific objectives of its Operations Center (SMOC) and the National Space prime mission. Each of the six IMAGE instruments Science Data Center (NSSDC)), as well as through has contributed significantly to IMAGE’s scientific web sites maintained by the individual instrument success, in no small part because of the integrated groups. Level-1 data are available from the SMOC nature of the payload and the resulting data stream, within 24 hours of their receipt from the Deep which uses a common format that facilitates the Space Network (DSN). Level-1 data include CDF joint plotting of data. Since its inception, the IM- files and GIF images from all instruments at their AGE data system has been completely open to the full time resolution but with a limited set of wave- community. All data to their full resolution and lengths, energies, and species. The full data sets are software needed for data display and analysis are available within three days in the Universal Data freely available to the community. The IMAGE Format (UDF) [Gurgiolo, 2000]. The software 1 needed to acquire, plot, and analyze UDF data is 15, 2002, IMAGE results were featured four times available for free download from several sites, and on the cover of Geophysical Research Letters. In for virtually all conceivable platforms (UNIX, addition, IMAGE results have been reported in over Windows, Mac OS-X). 400 presentations at scientific conferences and in Education and Public Outreach. The IMAGE other venues. Five Ph.D. theses using IMAGE data EPO program, called POETRY (Public Outreach have been completed, and six more are in progress. Education, Teaching and Reaching Youth) was im- Table 1 summarizes the IMAGE publication record plemented several years before launch and is well by instrument. Many of the papers use data from integrated into the Sun-Earth Connections Educa- more than one IMAGE instrument. In those cases, tion Forum. It has received national recognition and either the primary data source or the affiliation of awards for books, curricula (primary through sec- the first author was used to classify the paper. Pa- ondary), teacher training events, interactive web pers listed under “all” involve the entire IMAGE site, museum kiosks, educational video, and plane- payload. An on-line bibliography of IMAGE publi- tarium exhibits. During the extended mission, the cations can be found at the URLs: IMAGE POETRY program will continue to pro- http://image.gsfc.nasa.gov/publication/ and duce high-quality and innovative education prod- http://pluto.space.swri.edu/IMAGE/. ucts that explain space physics concepts to teachers The following proposal summarizes IMAGE’s and students in the K-12 community and the public. key accomplishments and presents the new mission Award Winning Mission. Since the last Sen- (Section I); reviews the technical status of the in- ior Review, IMAGE was selected by NASA Head- struments, spacecraft, and ground segment, dis- quarters as the “Best OSS Mission” and Jim Burch cusses IMAGE data availability and dissemination, received the award in September 2002 on behalf of and presents the budget for the new mission (Sec- IMAGE at the Enterprise Showcase of Best Pro- tion II); and presents the accomplishments and fu- jects at the Project Management Shared Experience ture plans of the IMAGE EPO program (Section Program 2002 in Reston, VA. In addition, William III). Gibson (SwRI) was awarded the NASA Public Service Medal for his successful management of I. SCIENCE the IMAGE mission from inception through launch. This medal is the highest level of award NASA A. Accomplishments to Date gives to a non-NASA employee. IMAGE Publications and Presentations. Since The overall science objective of IMAGE is to January 2000, 138 papers using IMAGE data or determine the response of the Earth’s magneto- describing IMAGE instrumentation have been pub- sphere to changing conditions in the solar wind. lished or accepted for publication or are in review. IMAGE addresses this objective by answering three Of these, a little over one fourth have first authors specific science questions: (1) What are the domi- who are not members of the original IMAGE team. nant mechanisms for injecting plasma into the Of these, Cluster investigators account for nine pa- magnetosphere on substorm and magnetic storm pers and ground-based investigations account for time scales? (2) What is the directly driven re- another eight papers. Reflecting the importance that sponse of the magnetosphere to solar wind the space physics community attaches to the IM- changes? (3) How and where are plasmas ener- AGE observations, between July 1 and December gized, transported, and subsequently lost during Table 1. IMAGE papers and presentations. FUV EUV HENA MENA LENA RPI All Total Papers (totals) 44 14 15 12 17 25 11 138 Published 28 8 9 7 11 14 10 87 In Press 13 2 3 4 4 3 1 30 In Review 3 4 3 1 2 8 21 Presentations 120+ 50+ ~29 25 35+ 141 400+ Theses (total) 3 1 2 1 1 3 11 Completed 1 1 1 2 5 In Progress 2 2 1 1 6 2 Table 2. IMAGE science instruments. Imager Lead Investigator Objectives Measurements LENA Thomas E. Moore, Image ionospheric outflow Neutral atom composition (Low-Energy Neutral NASA/GSFC and flux at 10 eV to 1 keV Atom) with field of view of 90° x 360°, angular resolution of 8°, and energy resolution of 80%. MENA Craig J. Pollock, South- Image inner region of Neutral atom composition (Medium-Energy west Research Institute plasma sheet and flux at 1 keV to 50 keV Neutral Atom) with field of view of 90° x 120°, angular resolution of 8°, and energy resolution of 80%. HENA Donald G. Mitchell, Johns Image ring current Neutral atom composition (High-Energy Neu- Hopkins Univ., Applied and flux at 20 keV to 500 tral Atom) Physics Laboratory keV with field of view of 90° x 107°, angular resolu- tion of 8°, and energy resolution of 80%. EUV Bill R. Sandel, University of Image plasmasphere Extreme ultraviolet irradi- (Extreme Ultraviolet) Arizona ance at 30.4 nm with field of view of 90° x 90° and angular resolution of 0.6°. FUV Stephen B. Mende, Uni- Image electron and proton Far ultraviolet irradiance at (Far Ultraviolet) versity of California, Ber- aurora; map geocorona 135.6 nm, 121.8 nm, and keley 140-190 nm with field of view of 15° and angular resolution of 0.1°; geo- corona maps with three 1° field-of-view photometers. RPI Bodo W. Reinisch, Univer- Sound total plasma density Transmit and receive radio (Radio Plasma sity of Massachusetts, gradients throughout inner waves with frequencies Imager) Lowell magnetosphere between 3 kHz and 3 MHz.
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