Outline of the Active Magnetospheric Particle Tracer Explorers (AMPTE) Mission

This paper is intended as an introduction to a series of papers describing the three satellites of the AMPTE mission and their instrumentation. The aims and scientific context of the program are given together with a comparison of the general characteristics of the three spacecraft and their orbits. There is a brief resume of the studies performed so far, and a statement of future plans, together with a Calendar of completed and planned experiments and measurements.