AMPTE
The Active Magnetospheric Particle Tracer Explorers (AMPTE)
program was a three-nation, three-spacecraft mission designed to
study the sources, transport and acceleration of energetic
magnetospheric ions, and to study the interaction between clouds of
cool, dense, artificially injected plasma and the hot, magnetized,
rapidly flowing natural plasmas of the magnetosphere and solar wind.
The three AMPTE spacecraft are the NASA Charge Composition Explorer
(
CCE
), the Federal Republic of Germany's Ion Release Module (
IRM
), and the United Kingdom Satellite (
UKS
). All three were launched
together on August 16, 1984, into near-equatorial elliptical
orbits
. All contain extensive instrumentation supported by a diverse team of
investigators
, with the CCE and IRM providing the only existent complete data set
on energetic ion spectra, composition and charge state throughout
the near-earth magnetosphere.
In addition the IRM carried out eight
major active ion releases--two releases of clouds of lithium ions in
the solar wind in front of the magnetosphere (September 11 and 20,
1984), barium "artificial comet" releases in the dawn and dusk
magnetosheaths (December 27, 1984 and July 18, 1985), and two each
releases of lithium and barium ions in the near magnetotail (March
21; April 11, 23; May 13, 1985).