Magnetic reconnection is a fundamental physical process in plasmas whereby stored magnetic energy is converted into heat and kinetic energy of charged particles Reconnection occurs in many astrophysical plasma environments and in laboratory plasmas Using measurements with very high time resolution, NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission has found direct evidence for electron demagnetization and acceleration at sites along the sunward boundary of Earth's magnetosphere where the interplanetary magnetic field reconnects with the terrestrial magnetic field We have (i) observed the conversion of magnetic energy to particle energy; (ii) measured the electric field and current, which together cause the dissipation of magnetic energy; and (iii) identified the electron population that carries the current as a result of demagnetization and acceleration within the reconnection diffusion/dissipation region

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/early/2016/05/10/science.aaf2939.full.pdf

Electron-scale measurements of magnetic reconnection in space.

This paper summarises some of the recent progress that has been made in understanding astrophysical plasma turbulence in the solar wind, from in situ spacecraft observations. At large scales, where the turbulence is predominantly Alfvenic, measurements of critical balance, residual energy and three-dimensional structure are discussed, along with comparison to recent models of strong Alfvenic turbulence. At these scales, a few per cent of the energy is also in compressive fluctuations, and their nature, anisotropy and relation to the Alfvenic component is described. In the small-scale kinetic range, below the ion gyroscale, the turbulence becomes predominantly kinetic Alfven in nature, and measurements of the spectra, anisotropy and intermittency of this turbulence are discussed with respect to recent cascade models. One of the major remaining questions is how the turbulent energy is dissipated, and some recent work on this question, in addition to future space missions which will help to answer it, are briefly discussed.

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Recent progress in astrophysical plasma turbulence from solar wind observations

The Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission and operations are designed to provide the maximum reconnection science. The mission phases are chosen to investigate reconnection at the dayside magnetopause and in the magnetotail. At the dayside, the MMS orbits are chosen to maximize encounters with the magnetopause in regions where the probability of encountering the reconnection diffusion region is high. In the magnetotail, the orbits are chosen to maximize encounters with the neutral sheet, where reconnection is known to occur episodically. Although this targeting is limited by engineering constraints such as total available fuel, high science return orbits exist for launch dates over most of the year. The tetrahedral spacecraft formation has variable spacing to determine the optimum separations for the reconnection regions at the magnetopause and in the magnetotail. In the specific science regions of interest, the spacecraft are operated in a fast survey mode with continuous acquisition of burst mode data. Later, burst mode triggers and a ground-based scientist in the loop are used to determine the highest quality data to downlink for analysis. This operations scheme maximizes the science return for the mission.

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Magnetospheric Multiscale Science Mission Profile and Operations

Magnetic reconnection is known to be an important process for coupling solar wind mass and momentum into the Earth's magnetosphere. Reconnection is initiated in an electron-scale dissipation/diffusion region around an X line, but its consequences are large scale. While past experimental efforts have advanced our understanding of ion-scale physics and the consequences of magnetic reconnection, much higher spatial and temporal resolutions are needed to understand the electron-scale processes that cause reconnection. The Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission was implemented to probe the electron scale of reconnection. This article reports on results from the first scan of the dayside magnetopause with MMS. Specifically, we introduce a new event involving the radial traversal of guide-field reconnection to illustrate features of reconnection physics on the electron scale.

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/2016GL069787

Magnetic reconnection at the dayside magnetopause: Advances with MMS

The Exploration of energization and Radiation in Geospace (ERG) Science Center serves as a hub of the ERG project, providing data files in a common format and developing the space physics environment data analysis software and plug-ins for data analysis. The Science Center also develops observation plans for the ERG (Arase) satellite according to the science strategy of the project. Conjugate observations with other satellites and ground-based observations are also planned. These tasks contribute to the ERG project by achieving quick analysis and well-organized conjugate ERG satellite and ground-based observations.

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The ERG Science Center

The Fast Plasma Investigation (FPI) was developed for flight on the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission to measure the differential directional flux of magnetospheric electrons and ions with unprecedented time resolution to resolve kinetic-scale plasma dynamics. This increased resolution has been accomplished by placing four dual 180-degree top hat spectrometers for electrons and four dual 180-degree top hat spectrometers for ions around the periphery of each of four MMS spacecraft. Using electrostatic field-of-view deflection, the eight spectrometers for each species together provide 4pi-sr field-of-view with, at worst, 11.25-degree sample spacing. Energy/charge sampling is provided by swept electrostatic energy/charge selection over the range from 10 eV/q to 30000 eV/q. The eight dual spectrometers on each spacecraft are controlled and interrogated by a single block redundant Instrument Data Processing Unit, which in turn interfaces to the observatory’s Instrument Suite Central Instrument Data Processor. This paper describes the design of FPI, its ground and in-flight calibration, its operational concept, and its data products.

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Fast Plasma Investigation for Magnetospheric Multiscale

A novel optocoupler 100SW1502 was developed in-house in response to mechanical, electrical, and thermal failures of other commercially available optocouplers in the aerospace environment. It was designed with package features intended to prevent those failures. In this paper, the 100SW1502 was tested for various parameter degradations at doses up to 300 kRad[Si] total ionizing dose and 1.5E+12 n/cm2 total displacement damage dose. At consecutive dose points, the parameters of current transfer ratio, cross-leakage, forward-voltage on the light emitting diode, and dark current were measured. All parameters tested within nominal limits with the exception of dark current mean+KTL increases under total ionizing dose. However, dark current levels were successfully restored to pre-irradiation levels by an annealing process. These results indicate that the 100SW1502 has a radiation hardness comparable to similar devices while preventing other failures experienced by those devices.

J. Vloet

Papers

Fast Plasma Investigation for Magnetospheric Multiscale

100SW1502 Optocoupler TID & DDD Tests