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ENAS ARE PRODUCED WHEN ENERGETIC IONS CHARGE EXCHANGE WITH NEUTRAL GAS AND IS A RECOGNIZED TECHNIQUE FOR REMOTELY IMAGE IONS TRAPPED IN A MAGNETOSPHERE. THE ENAS CARRY NOT ONLY GLOBAL SPATIAL INFORMATION OF THE ENERGETIC IONS BUT ALSO THE COMPOSITIONAL INFORMATION OF THE ION DISTRIBUTIONS. THE ENA IMAGES OF THE INNER MAGNETOSPHERE COLLECTED BY THE IMAGE HENA IMAGER FROM THE YEARS 2000 TO 2005 CONVEY GLOBAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE RING CURRENT MORPHOLOGY DYNAMICS AND COMPOSITION. THE ENA OBSERVATIONS HAVE BEEN INVALUABLE FOR UNDERSTANDING FOR THE FIRST TIME THE GLOBAL DYNAMICS OF THE HOT PLASMA ITS ORIGIN AND HOW ITS CURRENTS CHANGE ON GLOBAL SCALE . THE HENA DATA HAS BEEN WIDELY USED IN MANY SCIENTIFIC STUDIES AND IS THE ONLY WAY TO VALIDATE GLOBAL MODELS OF THE RING CURRENT. THE HENA DATASET PROVIDES AN ENORMOUS STATISTICAL DATABASE FOR RING CURRENT DISTRIBUTIONS SO THAT A FUTURE MISSION CAN USE IT. HOWEVER THE UNDERLYING RING-CURRENT PARENT ION DISTRIBUTIONS FROM ENA IMAGES HAVE BEEN LIMITED TO OPEN ACCESS BY THE SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY LARGELY DUE TO THE COMPLEX NATURE OF RETRIEVING THE 3D ION DISTRIBUTIONS FROM THE ENA IMAGES. THE HENA SCIENCE TEAM HAS MADE A SIGNIFICANT EFFORT IN DEVELOPING AND VALIDATING A CONSTRAINED LINEAR INVERSION TECHNIQUE THAT RETRIEVES THE UNDERLYING RING CURRENT ION DISTRIBUTIONS FROM THE HENA IMAGES. THIS HENA ENA DERIVED RING CURRENT ION DISTRIBUTIONS CAN THEN BE USED TO ESTIMATE A SIGNIFICANT FRACTION OF THE GLOBAL PRESSURE DISTRIBUTIONS AND THUS IS A VERY ESSENTIAL DATASET IN THE ANALYSIS OF THE COUPLING IN THE INNER MAGNETOSPHERE. THEREFORE TO MAKE THIS DATASET AVAILABLE AND ACCESSIBLE TO THE HELIOPHYSICS COMMUNITY AND FURTHER ARCHIVED BECOMES IMPORTANT AND NECESSARY. WE PROPOSE TO PRODUCE THIS DATASET THAT CONTAINS THE ENA DERIVED RING CURRENT ION DISTRIBUTIONS FOR THE MAJORITY OF GEOMAGNETIC STORMS OBSERVED BY THE IMAGE SPACECRAFT OVER THE ENTIRE MISSION LIFETIME. IN THIS PROPOSED WORK THE RING CURRENT ION DISTRIBUTIONS WILL BE DERIVED USING THE HENA ENA MEASUREMENTS AT THE ENERGY RANGE FROM 27 TO 39 KEV FOR PROTONS. WE WILL VALIDATE THIS DATASET USING THE IN-SITU MEASUREMENTS FROM THE CLUSTER SPACECRAFT. THE PROPOSED DATA PRODUCT WILL BE WRITTEN IN COMMUNITY STANDARD COMMON DATA FORMAT (CDF) WITH APPROPRIATE METADATA INFORMATION. OUR METHODOLOGY CAN BE SUMMARIZED BELOW: (1) TO PRODUCE THIS NEW HENA DATASET IN COMMUNITY STANDARD COMMON DATA FORMAT (CDF) BY THOROUGHLY PREPARING PROCESSING VALIDATING AND VERIFYING DATA TO ENSURE THE HIGH DATA QUALITY STANDARD (2) TO DEVELOP SUFFICIENT AND ADEQUATE DOCUMENTATION TO ENSURE THE INDEPENDENT USE OF DATA (3) TO MAKE THIS ESSENTIAL DATASET ACCESSIBLE AND AVAILABLE TO THE HELIOPHYSICS COMMUNITY (4) TO IMPROVE THE HENA WEBSITE TO INCLUDE THE ACCESS TO THIS DATASET AND DOCUMENTATION WHICH DESCRIBES THE DATA AND THE USE OF DATA; (5) TO PROVIDE THE EXPERT ASSISTANCE TO THE HELIOPHYSICS COMMUNITY IN THE USE OF THIS DATASET AND (6) TO PREPARE FOR THE TRANSITION OF THIS NEW HENA DATA PRODUCT ALONG WITH THE DOCUMENTATION TO SPACE PHYSICS DATA FACILITY (SPDF) FOR ARCHIVING.

$50,000FY2017National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationNASA

The Johns Hopkins University

Investigators

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