IMAGE, Imager for Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global Exploration, will spend two years in an elliptical orbit around the Earth's poles, positioning some of the most sophisticated imaging instruments ever flown in the near-Earth space environment. Southwest Research Institute manages the IMAGE project and leads the IMAGE science investigation.
IMAGE is the first satellite mission dedicated to depicting the Earth's magnetosphere, the region of space controlled by the Earth's magnetic field and containing extremely tenuous plasmas of both solar and terrestrial origin. Invisible to standard astronomical observing techniques, these populations of ions and electrons traditionally have been studied through localized measurements with charged particle detectors, magnetometers and electric field instruments.
Instead of such in-situ measurements, IMAGE will employ a variety of imaging techniques to "see the invisible" and to produce the first comprehensive global images of the plasma populations in the inner magnetosphere. The MENA, whose sensor concept was developed by David McComas, head of Los Alamos' Center for Space Science and Exploration, is one of three devices capturing data on energetic neutral atoms.
Neutral atom imaging takes advantage of rare charge-exchange collisions between magnetospheric ions and atoms that have escaped from Earth's atmosphere. The neutral atoms created by these collisions are collected from remote locations to create images of the magnetosphere. A team of approximately 15 Los Alamos scientists and technicians from the Center and the Space and Atmospheric Sciences group has been working on MENA for nearly three years.
Los Alamos National Laboratory, a multidisciplinary research institution engaged in strategic science on behalf of national security, is operated by Los Alamos National Security, LLC, a team composed of Bechtel National, the University of California, The Babcock & Wilcox Company, and Washington Group International for the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration.
Los Alamos enhances national security by ensuring the safety and reliability of the U.S. nuclear stockpile, developing technologies to reduce threats from weapons of mass destruction, and solving problems related to energy, environment, infrastructure, health, and global security concerns.