First results from the Hot Plasma Composition Analyzer on the MMS mission
Friday, October 2, 2015: 11:30 AM
Stephen A Fuselier1, James L Burch1, Roy B Torbert2, Judith D Furman1, Roman Garcia Gomez1, Rumi Nakamura3, Nikolaos Paschalidis4, Steven M Petrinec5, Robert J Strangeway6, Karlheinz J Trattner7, James M Webster1, Paul B Wood1, David T Young1, Craig J Pollock8, Barbara L Giles8 and Barry Mauk9, (1)Southwest Research Institute San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, United States, (2)Univ New Hampshire, Durham, NH, United States, (3)Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, Austria, (4)NASA/GSFC-Heliophysics Sci, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (5)Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center, Palo Alto, CA, United States, (6)University of California Los Angeles, IGPP/EPSS, Los Angeles, CA, United States, (7)Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, Boulder, CO, United States, (8)NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (9)Applied Physics Laboratory Johns Hopkins, Laurel, MD, United States
Abstract:
In September 2015, the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission begins science operations at the dusk flank magnetopause. This multi-spacecraft mission includes very high time resolution, 3D plasma, electric, and magnetic field measurements, spacecraft potential control, energetic ion and electron measurements, and ion measurements with a new time-of-flight mass spectrometer. The Hot Plasma Composition Analyzer (HPCA) has a toroidal top hat ESA and a time-of-flight section for mass analysis. A high-frequency AC voltage is applied to part of the ESA to selectively remove high fluxes of protons so that low fluxes of minor ions of magnetospheric and solar wind origin are measured. The time-of-flight section has sufficient mass resolution to distinguish H+, He2+, He+ and O+. This talk presents the first results from HPCA from the dusk flank magnetosphere. The focus of the talk is on the separate dynamics of magnetospheric and solar wind ions in this region.
