IBEX Data Release 11 - Remote measurements of magnetospheric Energetic Neutral Emissions by the Interstellar Boundary Explorer: Probing dayside and nightside processes

The fortuitous combination of the Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) mission parameters: highly eccentric equatorial earth orbit, sun-pointing spin, and highly sensitive energetic neutral atom (ENA) instruments with field-of-view perpendicular to the spin axis, form a perfect platform to observe ENA emissions from the Earth's magnetosphere for long periods of time and from distances up to ~50 earth radii. IBEX views the magnetosphere from the side making continuous ~7° x 360° vertical swaths of the sky (great circle scan) at a resolution of ~14 seconds per full swath, covering an overlapping energy range of ~0.01 to ~1.8 keV (IBEX-Lo) and ~0.3 to ~6 keV (IBEX-Hi). These swaths, which convolve spatial and temporal information, are used to construct composite ENA images for different solar wind and interplanetary magnetic field conditions. This release provides, for the first time, a validated set of orbits that supported 7 studies over the last few years, a detailed data description, and highlight the IBEX magnetospheric science capabilities and the challenges associated with this data set. The data comprises 19 orbits from IBEX-Hi 6o histogram ENA count data, which is mostly what have been used in IBEX magnetospheric studies. This data release demonstrates that IBEX provides a unique global viewing perspective of the magnetosphere that complements in situ measurements in understanding magnetospheric plasma regions and processes on micro and macro scales. The release is separated into four sections. The first provides orbital information about IBEX and describes how it is able to image the Earth’s magnetosphere. The second outlines the publications that have used this data set. The third section provides details about the treatment of the data. The fourth section includes magnetospheric maps for the 19 orbits included in this release as well as the underlying count data files.

Orbit Information

Associated Publications

Data Description

Data