Magnetospheric Imaging - The Image Prime Mission

The Imager for Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global (IMAGE) satellite was launched in March 2000. As the first space mission dedicated to imaging the Earth’s magnetosphere, IMAGE carries a comprehensive payload designed to image the major ion populations of the inner magnetosphere (out to distances of approximately 10 Earth radii). The scientific objective of the mission is to determine the global response of the magnetosphere to variations in the solar wind. This volume, which should be of interest to researchers on the global aspects of magnetospheric physics, describes the latest results of the mission. Included are discoveries of many new aspects of the dynamics of the plasma sheet, ring current, plasmasphere, and proton aurora, which reveal a much more direct connection of the inner magnetosphere to the solar wind and interplanetary magnetic field than was previously considered.