TY - JOUR
T1 - Five years of stereo magnetospheric imaging by TWINS
AU - Goldstein, J.
AU - McComas, D. J.
N1 - Funding Information:
Acknowledgements This work was supported by the TWINS mission as part of NASA’s Explorer Program. The material for this review paper was adapted from TWINS science results included in the 2013 NASA Heliophysics Senior Review. We would like to thank all the members of the TWINS team who have made the mission such a success.
PY - 2013/12
Y1 - 2013/12
N2 - Two Wide-angle Imaging Neutral-atom Spectrometers (TWINS) is the first stereoscopic magnetospheric imager. TWINS is a NASA Explorer Mission of Opportunity performing simultaneous energetic neutral atom (ENA) imaging from two widely-separated Molniya orbits on two different spacecraft, and providing nearly continuous coverage of magnetospheric ENA emissions. The ENA imagers observe energetic neutrals produced from global ion populations, over a broad energy range (1-100 keV/u) with high angular (4 â̂̃×4â̂̃) and time (about 1-minute) resolution. TWINS distinguishes hydrogen ENAs from oxygen ENAs. Each TWINS spacecraft also carries a Lyman-α geocoronal imager to monitor the cold exospheric hydrogen atoms that produce ENAs from ions via charge exchange. Complementing the imagers are detectors that measure the local charged particle environment around the spacecraft. During its first five years of science operations, TWINS has discovered new global properties of geospace plasmas and neutrals, fostered understanding of causal relationships, confirmed theories and predictions based on in situ data, and yielded key insights needed to improve geospace models. Analysis and modeling of TWINS data have: (1) obtained continuous (main phase through recovery) global ion spectra, (2) revealed a previously unknown local-time dependence of global pitch angle, (3) developed quantitative determination of ion fluxes from low altitude ENAs (4) determined dynamic connections between local pitch angle and global ion precipitation, (5) confirmed local-time dependence of precipitating ion temperature, (6) imaged global dynamic heating of the magnetosphere, (7) explained why the oxygen ring current survives longer into recovery than hydrogen, and (8) revealed new global exospheric density features and their influence upon ring current decay rates. Over the next several years of the solar cycle, TWINS observations of three-dimensional (3D) global ion dynamics, composition, origins and destinies are crucial to capture the system-level view of geospace over the full range of geomagnetic and solar activity conditions.
AB - Two Wide-angle Imaging Neutral-atom Spectrometers (TWINS) is the first stereoscopic magnetospheric imager. TWINS is a NASA Explorer Mission of Opportunity performing simultaneous energetic neutral atom (ENA) imaging from two widely-separated Molniya orbits on two different spacecraft, and providing nearly continuous coverage of magnetospheric ENA emissions. The ENA imagers observe energetic neutrals produced from global ion populations, over a broad energy range (1-100 keV/u) with high angular (4 â̂̃×4â̂̃) and time (about 1-minute) resolution. TWINS distinguishes hydrogen ENAs from oxygen ENAs. Each TWINS spacecraft also carries a Lyman-α geocoronal imager to monitor the cold exospheric hydrogen atoms that produce ENAs from ions via charge exchange. Complementing the imagers are detectors that measure the local charged particle environment around the spacecraft. During its first five years of science operations, TWINS has discovered new global properties of geospace plasmas and neutrals, fostered understanding of causal relationships, confirmed theories and predictions based on in situ data, and yielded key insights needed to improve geospace models. Analysis and modeling of TWINS data have: (1) obtained continuous (main phase through recovery) global ion spectra, (2) revealed a previously unknown local-time dependence of global pitch angle, (3) developed quantitative determination of ion fluxes from low altitude ENAs (4) determined dynamic connections between local pitch angle and global ion precipitation, (5) confirmed local-time dependence of precipitating ion temperature, (6) imaged global dynamic heating of the magnetosphere, (7) explained why the oxygen ring current survives longer into recovery than hydrogen, and (8) revealed new global exospheric density features and their influence upon ring current decay rates. Over the next several years of the solar cycle, TWINS observations of three-dimensional (3D) global ion dynamics, composition, origins and destinies are crucial to capture the system-level view of geospace over the full range of geomagnetic and solar activity conditions.
KW - Energetic neutral atom imaging
KW - Geomagnetic storms
KW - Global simulation
KW - Inner magnetosphere
KW - Ion composition
KW - Ion dynamics
KW - Ion pitch angle
KW - Ion temperature
KW - Multi-mission observations
KW - Neutral hydrogen exosphere
KW - Stereo imaging
KW - Terrestrial ring current
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U2 - 10.1007/s11214-013-0012-8
DO - 10.1007/s11214-013-0012-8
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:84890986918
VL - 180
SP - 39
EP - 70
JO - Space Science Reviews
JF - Space Science Reviews
SN - 0038-6308
IS - 1-4
ER -