Substorm Dynamics as Observed by RPI and FUV on IMAGE

The Imager for Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global Exploration (IMAGE) spacecraft is well suited to make unique observations of the aurora and associated radio emissions during substorms. Simultaneous data from the Radio Plasma Imager (RPI) instrument and the Far Ultraviolet (FUV) instrument on IMAGE will be used to study auroral zone dynamics. The FUV investigation provides simultaneous views of the aurora with the Wideband Imaging Camera (WIC, N_2 LBH 140-170 nm region), the Spectrographic Imager SI12 channel (imaging proton precipitation induced Doppler shifted Lyman alpha), and the SI13 channel (imaging the 135.6 nm OI and underlying LBH lines). FUV was designed to observe the location and intensity of the aurora over the entire auroral zone. In addition to radio sounding, the RPI measures the dynamic spectra of a variety of emissions associated with the aurora every few minutes. Several substorms have been selected for a detailed comparison between FUV and RPI data. FUV observations of the aurora are used during the times when IMAGE is at apogee and well-situated in the AKR emission cone. Harmonic AKR is observed on a number of passes.