| Abstract |
IMAGE is the first MIDEX (Medium-class Explorer) mission of NASA/GSFC with the overall objective to study the global response of the Earth's magnetosphere to changes in the solar wind. Observations of high spatial and temporal resolution 3-D imagery of magnetospheric plasma motions. IMAGE uses ENA (Energetic Neutral Atom), ultraviolet, and radio imaging techniques to:
• Identify the dominant mechanisms for injecting plasma into the magnetosphere on substorm and magnetic storm time scales
• Determine the directly driven response of the magnetosphere to solar wind changes
• Discover how and where magnetospheric plasmas are energized, transported, and subsequently lost during substorms and magnetic storms.
SwRI (Southwest Research Institute, PI: James L. Burch) of San Antonio, Texas, is the prime partner of NASA in this project.
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