High Time Resolution Structure in Magnetospheric Plasmas
Thursday, October 1, 2015
Daniel J Gershman1,2, John Dorelli2, Adolfo F. Vinas2, Levon A Avanov2,3, Ulrik Gliese2,4, Alexander Barrie2,5, Victoria N Coffey6, Charles Dickson2,7, Barbara L Giles2, Matthew P Holland2, Elizabeth MacDonald2, Chad Salo2,8, Yoshifumi Saito9, Roy B Torbert10,11, Christopher T Russell12, Robert J Strangeway12 and Craig J Pollock2, (1)Oak Ridge Associated Universities, Oak Ridge, TN, United States, (2)NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (3)University of Maryland, College Park, MD, United States, (4)SGT Inc., Greenbelt, MD, United States, (5)Millenium Engineering and Integration Company, Arlington, VA, United States, (6)NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL, United States, (7)AS and D, Inc., Beltsville, MD, United States, (8)Stellar Solutions, Palo Alto, CA, United States, (9)ISAS Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, Kanagawa, Japan, (10)University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, United States, (11)Southwest Research Institute Durham, Durham, NH, United States, (12)University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States
Abstract:
Plasma turbulence is present at all scales in Earth’s magnetosphere, but direct observations of plasma physics at the kinetic-scale have been elusive due to limitations in particle instrumentation. The Fast Plasma Investigation (FPI) suite on the Magnetospheric MultiScale (MMS) spacecraft enables the measurement of full three-dimensional velocity distributions of both ion and electrons at unprecedented temporal cadences. Such high resolution is suitable for resolving dynamics that occur at ion and electron gyroscales throughout the magnetosphere. Here, we present initial data from FPI’s Dual Electron Sensor and Dual Ion Sensors taken in Earth’s nightside magnetosphere along with MMS magnetometer data. Specifically, we examine the spectral indices of key plasma parameters (e.g., density and temperature) and compare them with magnetic and electric field fluctuations in the same time intervals. Such wave-particle interactions produce localized currents in the plasma. We examine the presence of these currents in the nightside plasma sheet and identify the relevant portions of the electron and ion velocity distributions that are responsible for their generation.
