The cosmic-ray proton and helium spectra from 0.2 GeV nucleon~1 to about 200 GeV nucleon~1 have been measured with the balloon-borne experiment Isotope Matter-Antimatter Experiment (IMAX) launched from Lynn Lake, Manitoba, Canada, in 1992. IMAX was designed to search for antiprotons and light isotopes using a superconducting magnet spectrometer together with scintillators, a time-of-Ñight system, and Cherenkov detectors. Using redundant detectors, an extensive examination of the instrument efficiency was carried out. We present here the absolute spectra of protons and helium corrected to the top of the atmosphere and to interstellar space. If demodulated with a solar modulation parameter of / \ 750 MV, the measured interstellar spectra between 20 and 200 GV can be represented by a power law in rigidity, with (1.42^0.21) ] 104R~2.71B0.04 (m2 GV s sr)~1 for protons and (3.15^1.03) ] 103R~2.79B0.08 (m2 GV s sr)~1 for helium. Subject headings : cosmic rays È elementary particles È ISM : abundances

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The Modular Multispectral Imaging Array (MMIA) is a suite of optical sensors mounted on an external platform of the European Space Agency's Columbus Module on the International Space Station. The MMIA, together with the Modular X-and Gamma-ray Sensor (MXGS), are the two main instruments forming the Atmosphere-Space Interactions Monitor (ASIM). The primary scientific objectives of the ASIM mission are to study thunderstorm electrical activity such as lightning, Transient Luminous Emissions (TLEs) and Terrestrial Gamma-ray Flashes (TGFs) by observing the associated emissions in the UV, near-infrared, x-and gamma-ray spectral bands. The MMIA includes two cameras imaging in 337 nm and 777.4 nm, at up to 12 frames per second, and three high-speed photometers at 180-230 nm, 337 nm and 777.4 nm, sampling at rates up to 100 kHz. The paper describes the MMIA and the aspects that make it an essential tool for the study of thunderstorms. The mission architecture is described in Neubert et al.

During the Northern Hemisphere summer of 2003 a sprite observation campaign was conducted from Southern Europe and the magnetically conjugate region in South Africa. The campaign brought together a wide variety of instrumentation to investigate the effects of sprites on the mesosphere, and to search for signatures of the relativistic electron acceleration process in the magnetically conjugate hemisphere. Measurements in Europe included optical video imaging from a remote-controlled, semi-automatic camera system located at the Observatoire du Pic du Midi in the Pyre´ne´es mountains in Southern France, infrasound observations from France, and ULF-HF electromagnetic observations from a number of locations. The measurements in South Africa included observations of optical emissions and VLF electromagnetic waves. The campaign was successful, with more than 100 sprites observed during 10 storms. The paper will give an overview of the campaign and some results. They include: (1) the first clear identification of infrasound from sprites, allowing independent (of optical observations) estimates of the energy input to the mesosphere, (2) the first detection of sprites triggered by intra-cloud lightning, a result that underscores the need for considering the complete thunderstorm source field resulting from both cloud-to-ground discharges and the intra-cloud discharges feeding them, and (3) a clear one-to-one relationship with sprites and early VLF events, suggesting that VLF ground transmitter signals can be an important tool for estimating ionisation and relaxation of ionised structures in sprites. No signatures of relativistic electrons were identified during the campaign. r

Abstract. The JEM-X monitor provides X-ray spectra and imaging with arcminute angular resolution in the 3 to 35 keV band. The good angular resolution and the low energy response of JEM-X plays an important role in the identification of gamma ray sources and in the analysis and scientific interpretation of the combined X-ray and gamma ray data. JEM-X is a coded aperture instrument consisting of two identical, coaligned telescopes. Each of the detectors has a sensitive area of 500 cm 2 , and views the sky through its own coded aperture mask. The two coded masks are inverted with respect to each other and provides an angular resolution of 3 across an effective field of view of about 10• diameter.