IMAGE Mission activities at MSFC

Spacecraft and Mission Facts

For the IMAGE mission, an instrument complement of six imagers will fly in an elliptical polar orbit around the Earth. These instruments will image large portions of the magnetosphere through naturally produced fluxes of far ultraviolet, and extreme ultraviolet radiation, and low medium and high energy neutral atoms. It will also sound plasma boundaries, such as the magnetopause and plasmapause, by emmiting low frequency radio waves and listening for the echos (i.e. like sonar). The spacecraft will be powered by body-mounted solar arrays and communicate its data back to Earth using NASA's Deep Space Network.

Measurement Objectives

To obtain simultaneous images of component regions of the magnetosphere, such as:

• The ring current and inner plasma sheet
• The plasmasphere
• The electron and proton auroras
• The geocorona
• The Magnetopause
• High Latitude Outflowing Ions

MSFC & Associates Initiatives

• Ring Current
• Plasmasphere
• Outflowing Ions
• Uji Lectures on the Aurora, by Wynne Calvert
• Simulated Event 10/18/95, animated GIF
• Simulated Event 10/19/95, animated GIF

Additional Information

• GSFC IMAGE Home Page
• IMAGE Theory and Modeling Home Page
• IMAGE Proposal

Responsible Official

Last Updated: March 18, 1998