IMAGE mission overview

The Imager for Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global Exploration (IMAGE) mission is the first mission in NASA's MIDEX (Mid-size Explorer) program. It is the f irst satellite mission that is dedicated to imaging the Earth's magnetosphe re. IMAGE will utilize the techniques of ultraviolet imaging, neutral atom imaging, and radio plasma imaging to map out global distributions of the el ectron and proton aurora; the helium ions of the plasmasphere; the ionosphe ric ion outflow; the medium-energy ions of the near-Earth plasma sheet, rin g current, and polar cusp; the high-energy ions of the ring current and tra pped radiation belts; and the total plasma density from the ionosphere out to the magnetopause. The imaging perspective is from an elliptical polar or bit with apogee at latitudes from 40 degrees to 90 degrees in the northern hemisphere. For ultraviolet and neutral atom imaging, the time resolution i s set by the two-minute spin period of the IMAGE spacecraft, which will be sufficient to track the development of magnetospheric substorms. An importa nt feature of the IMAGE mission is its completely open data set with no pro prietary data or intervals. All data, along with software needed for plotti ng and analysis, will be available within 24 hours of acquisition.