Current sheet properties derived using multi-point measurements from the Cluster and MMS missions

Abstract:

Cluster multispacecraft measurements provided for the first time the opportunity to study the properties of current sheets in terms of their spatial and temporal evolution. The smaller distances among the spacecraft of the recently launched Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission and the unprecedented time resolution of the plasma and field measurements of the instruments onboard MMS allow us to study the current sheet with greater details. For this analysis, we use plasma density measurements obtained both from the plasma detector as well as from plasma density estimates observed from spacecraft potential variations also derived when the spacecraft potential is under active control, i.e. the ASPOC instruments are emitting ion beams. These plasma parameters deduced from the different level of ASPOC currents are used to characterize the current sheet structures obtained from the magnetic field measurements. We focus on case studies and compare our results with previous findings from the Cluster mission. The results of this study could be a useful input for current sheet models and simulations.