The list of possble missions is shown in a list on the top left of the window, and the currently selected mission is highlighted. To change to a different mission in the list, select the desired mission and click on the "Switch to Selected Mission" Button.
The list of instruments for the currently selected mission is shown just below the list of all the missions. The list of analysis tools for the currently selected mission is show to the right of the mission list. Below the analysis tool list (to the right of the instrument list) is another list showing the different types of summary images available for the current mission. These summary images are pre-made, static images, generally for a fixed width of time, and they provide an overview of the data.
Below the instrument list is a selection for the coordinate system to use when analyzing data for the currently selected mission.
On the left, at the bottom of the panel is a method for selecting a time range. This time range is used to select the data to be displayed in any of the analysis tools which can be launched for a particlar mission.
There are two ways to select a time range. Firstly, you may move the vertical red bars overlaying the summary images. Just use the mouse to click and drag the bars. The left bar defines the start time and the right bar the end time.
Alternatively, you can manually enter start and stop times. This lets you specify time intervals which cross the time boundaries of the summary images. (You may enter time ranges which are arbitrarily long. However, most of the datasets in MIDL have high time resolution, and so anything more than a few days is likely to require more memeory than is available in your computer.)
With a mission selected and a time range selected, you can then launch any of the analysis tools in the list at the top. The data which shows up in the tool will be just the data inside the time range you have selected.
Help for using the individual tools can be found in the MIDL Help section of this User's Guide.