The Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms (THEMIS) mission is the fifth NASA Medium-class Explorer (MIDEX), launched on February 17, 2007 to determine the trigger and large-scale evolution of substorms. The mission employs five identical micro-satellites (hereafter termed “probes”) which line up along the Earth’s magnetotail to track the motion of particles, plasma and waves from one point to another and for the first time resolve space–time ambiguities in key regions of the magnetosphere on a global scale. The probes are equipped with comprehensive in-situ particles and fields instruments that measure the thermal and super-thermal ions and electrons, and electromagnetic fields from DC to beyond the electron cyclotron frequency in the regions of interest. The primary goal of THEMIS, which drove the mission design, is to elucidate which magnetotail process is responsible for substorm onset at the region where substorm auroras map (∼10 RE): (i) a local disruption of the plasma sheet current (current disruption) or (ii) the interaction of the current sheet with the rapid influx of plasma emanating from reconnection at ∼25 RE. However, the probes also traverse the radiation belts and the dayside magnetosphere, allowing THEMIS to address additional baseline objectives, namely: how the radiation belts are energized on time scales of 2–4 hours during the recovery phase of storms, and how the pristine solar wind’s interaction with upstream beams, waves and the bow shock affects Sun–Earth coupling. THEMIS’s open data policy, platform-independent dataset, open-source analysis software, automated plotting and dissemination of data within hours of receipt, dedicated ground-based observatory network and strong links to ancillary space-based and ground-based programs. promote a grass-roots integration of relevant NASA, NSF and international assets in the context of an international Heliophysics Observatory over the next decade. The mission has demonstrated spacecraft and mission design strategies ideal for Constellation-class missions and its science is complementary to Cluster and MMS. THEMIS, the first NASA micro-satellite constellation, is a technological pathfinder for future Sun-Earth Connections missions and a stepping stone towards understanding Space Weather.

The THEMIS Mission

[1] We report THEMIS observations of a dipolarization front, a sharp, large-amplitude increase in the Z-component of the magnetic field. The front was detected in the central plasma sheet sequentially at X = -20.1 R E (THEMIS P1 probe), at X = -16.7 R E (P2), and at X = -11.0 R E (P3/P4 pair), suggesting its earthward propagation as a coherent structure over a distance more than 10 R E at a velocity of 300 km/s. The front thickness was found to be as small as the ion inertial length. Comparison with simulations allows us to interpret the front as the leading edge of a plasma fast flow formed by a burst of magnetic reconnection in the midtail.

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THEMIS observations of an earthward-propagating dipolarization front

The Solar Wind Electrons Alphas and Protons (SWEAP) Investigation on Solar Probe Plus is a four sensor instrument suite that provides complete measurements of the electrons and ionized helium and hydrogen that constitute the bulk of solar wind and coronal plasma. SWEAP consists of the Solar Probe Cup (SPC) and the Solar Probe Analyzers (SPAN). SPC is a Faraday Cup that looks directly at the Sun and measures ion and electron fluxes and flow angles as a function of energy. SPAN consists of an ion and electron electrostatic analyzer (ESA) on the ram side of SPP (SPAN-A) and an electron ESA on the anti-ram side (SPAN-B). The SPAN-A ion ESA has a time of flight section that enables it to sort particles by their mass/charge ratio, permitting differentiation of ion species. SPAN-A and -B are rotated relative to one another so their broad fields of view combine like the seams on a baseball to view the entire sky except for the region obscured by the heat shield and covered by SPC. Observations by SPC and SPAN produce the combined field of view and measurement capabilities required to fulfill the science objectives of SWEAP and Solar Probe Plus. SWEAP measurements, in concert with magnetic and electric fields, energetic particles, and white light contextual imaging will enable discovery and understanding of solar wind acceleration and formation, coronal and solar wind heating, and particle acceleration in the inner heliosphere of the solar system. SPC and SPAN are managed by the SWEAP Electronics Module (SWEM), which distributes power, formats onboard data products, and serves as a single electrical interface to the spacecraft. SWEAP data products include ion and electron velocity distribution functions with high energy and angular resolution. Full resolution data are stored within the SWEM, enabling high resolution observations of structures such as shocks, reconnection events, and other transient structures to be selected for download after the fact. This paper describes the implementation of the SWEAP Investigation, the driving requirements for the suite, expected performance of the instruments, and planned data products, as of mission preliminary design review.

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Solar Wind Electrons Alphas and Protons (SWEAP) Investigation: Design of the Solar Wind and Coronal Plasma Instrument Suite for Solar Probe Plus

The design, performance, and on-orbit operation of the three-axis electric field instrument (EFI) for the NASA THEMIS mission is described. The 20 radial wire boom and 10 axial stacer boom antenna systems making up the EFI sensors on the five THEMIS spacecraft, along with their supporting electronics have been deployed and are operating successfully on-orbit without any mechanical or electrical failures since early 2007. The EFI provides for waveform and spectral three-axis measurements of the ambient electric field from DC up to 8 kHz, with a single, integral broadband channel extending up to 400 kHz. Individual sensor potentials are also measured, providing for on-board and ground-based estimation of spacecraft floating potential and high-resolution plasma density measurements. Individual antenna baselines are 50- and 40-m in the spin plane, and 6.9-m along the spin axis.

The Electric Field Instrument (EFI) for THEMIS

With the advent of the Heliophysics/Geospace System Observatory (H/GSO), a complement of multi-spacecraft missions and ground-based observatories to study the space environment, data retrieval, analysis, and visualization of space physics data can be daunting. The Space Physics Environment Data Analysis System (SPEDAS), a grass-roots software development platform (
 www.spedas.org
 ), is now officially supported by NASA Heliophysics as part of its data environment infrastructure. It serves more than a dozen space missions and ground observatories and can integrate the full complement of past and upcoming space physics missions with minimal resources, following clear, simple, and well-proven guidelines. Free, modular and configurable to the needs of individual missions, it works in both command-line (ideal for experienced users) and Graphical User Interface (GUI) mode (reducing the learning curve for first-time users). Both options have “crib-sheets,” user-command sequences in ASCII format that can facilitate record-and-repeat actions, especially for complex operations and plotting. Crib-sheets enhance scientific interactions, as users can move rapidly and accurately from exchanges of technical information on data processing to efficient discussions regarding data interpretation and science. SPEDAS can readily query and ingest all International Solar Terrestrial Physics (ISTP)-compatible products from the Space Physics Data Facility (SPDF), enabling access to a vast collection of historic and current mission data. The planned incorporation of Heliophysics Application Programmer’s Interface (HAPI) standards will facilitate data ingestion from distributed datasets that adhere to these standards. Although SPEDAS is currently Interactive Data Language (IDL)-based (and interfaces to Java-based tools such as Autoplot), efforts are under-way to expand it further to work with python (first as an interface tool and potentially even receiving an under-the-hood replacement). We review the SPEDAS development history, goals, and current implementation. We explain its “modes of use” with examples geared for users and outline its technical implementation and requirements with software developers in mind. We also describe SPEDAS personnel and software management, interfaces with other organizations, resources and support structure available to the community, and future development plans.

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The Space Physics Environment Data Analysis System (SPEDAS)

The THEMIS plasma instrument is designed to measure the ion and electron distribution functions over the energy range from a few eV up to 30 keV for electrons and 25 keV for ions. The instrument consists of a pair of “top hat” electrostatic analyzers with common 180°×6° fields-of-view that sweep out 4π steradians each 3 s spin period. Particles are detected by microchannel plate detectors and binned into six distributions whose energy, angle, and time resolution depend upon instrument mode. On-board moments are calculated, and processing includes corrections for spacecraft potential. This paper focuses on the ground and in-flight calibrations of the 10 sensors on five spacecraft. Cross-calibrations were facilitated by having all the plasma measurements available with the same resolution and format, along with spacecraft potential and magnetic field measurements in the same data set. Lessons learned from this effort should be useful for future multi-satellite missions.

The THEMIS ESA Plasma Instrument and In-flight Calibration

The five identical THEMIS Spacecraft, launched in February 2007, carry two magnetometers on each probe, one DC fluxgate (FGM) and one AC search coil (SCM). Due to the small size of the THEMIS probes, and the short length of the magnetometer booms, magnetic cleanliness was a particularly complex task for this medium sized mission. The requirements leveled on the spacecraft and instrument design required a detailed approach, but one that did not hamper the development of the probes during their short design, production and testing phase. In this paper we describe the magnetic cleanliness program’s requirements, design guidelines, program implementation, mission integration and test philosophy and present test results, and mission on-orbit performance.

M. Ludlam

Papers

The THEMIS ESA Plasma Instrument and In-flight Calibration

The THEMIS Magnetic Cleanliness Program