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This grant report provides information on data from the Interplanetary Monitoring Platform-8 (IMP-8). Topics covered include: (1) the science involved in the project; (2) the collection of data; (3) the processing of data; (4) the submission of data to other facilities; (5) the availability of data on the world wide web (WWW). Graphs are also included of data on the interstellar medium.
The foundation of this Project is use of the opportunity available during the ISTP (International Solar-Terrestrial Physics) era to compare solar wind measurements obtained simultaneously by three spacecraft - IMP 8, WIND and INTERBALL-1 at wide-separated points. Using these data allows us to study three important topics: (1) the size and dynamics of near-Earth mid-scale (with dimension about 1-10 million km) and small-scale (with dimension about 10-100 thousand km) solar wind structures; (2) the reliability of the common assumption that solar wind conditions at the upstream Lagrangian (L1) point accurately predict the conditions affecting Earth's magnetosphere; (3) modification of the solar wind plasma and magnetic field in the regions near the Earth magnetosphere, the foreshock and the magnetosheath. Our Project was dedicated to these problems. Our research has made substantial contributions to the field and has lead others to undertake similar work.
The IMP 8 spacecraft was launched in 1973 and the MIT solar wind Faraday Cup experiment continues to produce excellent data except for a slightly increased noise level. Those data have been important for determining the solar wind interaction with Earth's magnetic field; studies of interplanetary shocks; studies of the correlation lengths of solar wind features through comparisons with other spacecraft; and more recently, especially important for determination of the regions in which the Wind spacecraft was taking data as it passed through Earth's magnetotail and for understanding the propagation of solar wind features from near 1 AU to the two Voyager spacecraft.
The Goddard Medium Energy experiment on the IMP 8 spacecraft has made nearly continuous observations of the near-Earth energetic particle environment from its launch in October, 1973 until near present. We summarize several aspects of these observations, including solar energetic particle events, CIR-associated events, and cosmic ray modulations. In particular, we note that, as expected fiom the pattern of smaller recurrent (27 day) cosmic ray modulations seen in the mid 1980's A less than 0 solar minimum compared to the previous and following (A greater than 0) minima, recurrent modulations are again reduced in the current solar minimum.
Launching of Interplanetary Monitoring Platform spacecraft into lunar orbit
Anchored interplanetary monitoring platform /IMP/ SATELLITE mission events and real time computing system support
Flight report on interplanetary monitoring platform /IMP/
Interplanetary Monitoring Platform /IMP/ PERFORMANCE during launch and orbit
Pulse height analyzer and logic circuits for interplanetary monitoring platform nuclear abundance experiment - explorer xviii
Plasma energy spectrum measurements by interplanetary monitoring platform i /imp-i/ satellite
Intensity and energy spectra determination of primary cosmic ray protons by telescope aboard Explorer XVIII satellite
Interplanetary Monitoring Platform magnetic field experiment - interpretation of data on magnetospheric boundary and collisionless magnetohydrodynamic shock waves
Flight test report on Interplanetary Monitoring Platform /IMP/ - Explorer XXI
Plasma measurements made by Explorer XVIII SATELLITE /IMP-A/ using Faraday-cup instrument
Interplanetary magnetic-field measurements taken by Interplanetary Monitoring Platform /IMP-I/
Reentry predictions for Explorer 28 satellite
Discontinuities in interplanetary magnetic field observed by Explorer 28 satellite