MMS Status and Early Results
Friday, October 2, 2015: 8:40 AM
Thomas Earle Moore1, James L Burch2, Daniel N. Baker3, Robert E Ergun4, Stephen A Fuselier2, Barbara L Giles5, Michael Hesse5, Barry Mauk6, Rumi Nakamura7, Craig J Pollock5, Roy B Torbert8 and Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission Team, (1)NASA Goddard Space Flight Ctr, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (2)Southwest Research Institute San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, United States, (3)University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO, United States, (4)University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, United States, (5)NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (6)Applied Physics Laboratory Johns Hopkins, Laurel, MD, United States, (7)Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, Austria, (8)Univ New Hampshire, Durham, NH, United States
Abstract:
Commissioning of the Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission (MMS) has been underway since a very smooth launch on 12 March 2015. This was followed by a first phase of commissioning during which the spacecraft apogees moved from the morning sector toward midnight very close to the magnetospheric neutral sheet at 12 RE. They were eclipsed by Earth beginning ~ 15 May, continuing through the summer solstice. Prior to that, all instruments were activated, all deployments were performed and all types of instruments were operated in full science mode, documenting a number of interesting geophysical events as they approached midnight. As the orbits moved into the evening sector, a conjunction with the Van Allen Probes mission will have occurred, during which a co-rotating interaction region may have disturbed the magnetosphere. The Fast Plasma Investigation spectrometers on two spacecraft, and Hot Plasma Composition Analyzers on three spacecraft, will have been commissioned to full science mode during the second phase of commissioning in July-August, and the four spacecraft will have been maneuvered to a tetrahedral formation with mean spacing of 160 km. An interference campaign and an inter-calibration campaign will be performed as all the sensors are fully commissioned, culminating in full science operations on 1 September 2015.
