IMAGE Orbit Plots

The IMAGE orbit plots consist of four panels:

The three panels located in the upper left, upper right, and lower left show X-Z, Y-Z, and X-Y projections of the IMAGE orbit respectively, in SM coordinates. The orbit traces are color coded according to the region of geospace transversed by the spacecraft.

Auroral oval: RED
Cleft: BLUE
Cusp: BLACK
Polar cap: GRAY
Plasmasphere: GREEN
Magnetosphere, other than above: YELLOW

The plots in the lower right corner display distance (upper panel) and frequency (lower panel) as a function of time.

UPPER TIME SERIES PANEL in LOWER RIGHT CORNER displays model based estimates of the distances to the plasmapause and magnetopause in units of Earth radii.

distance to the magnetopause: BLUE
distance to the plasmapause: RED

LOWER TIME SERIES PANEL in LOWER RIGHT CORNER displays various frequencies in units kilo-Hertz.

Local plasma frequency: BLACK
Local electron cyclotron frequency: RED
Geometric mean of the electron and proton cyclotron frequencies (proxy to the lower hybrid resonance frequency): GREEN
The estimated maximum echo frequency from the magnetopause: BLUE

Note: all of these parameters are model based and therefore are for predictive purposes.

Authors and curators:

Scott Boardsen - L-3 Comm., GSI. (boardsen@mail630.gsfc.nasa.gov)

Last updated: August 23, 2005