Early results on energetic particle dynamics and structure from the Energetic Ion Spectrometer (EIS) on the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission

Abstract:

The cluster of four, formation-flying spacecraft, comprising the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission, launched on 13 March 2015 into near equatorial 1.2 x 12 RE orbits, provides an important new asset for assessing the transport of energy and matter from the distant regions of Earth’s magnetosphere into the inner regions. Here we report on early results from the Energetic Ion Spectrometer (EIS) instrument on each of the MMS Spacecraft. EIS provides nearly all-sky energetic ion energy, angle and elemental compositional distributions for < 20 keV for protons and 45 keV for oxygen ions, up to > 1 MeV. It also measures energetic electrons from 25 keV to > 0.5 MeV in support and coordination with the electron-focused Fly’s Eye Energetic Particle Spectrometer (FEEPS). During the early phase of the MMS mission, while the full complement of instruments was being commissioned prior to the prime mission phase beginning 1 September 2015, EIS observed dynamic energetic particle injections at the root of the magnetotail between the post-midnight regions and dawn in association with numerous dipolarization fronts and related processes. Here we report on coordinated measurements between MMS’s EIS instrument and EIS’s sister instrument on the Van Allen Probes, RBSPICE, to further address the relationship between dynamic injections and depolarization fronts in the magnetotail and injections observed deep within the magnetosphere’s ring current regions. We also report preliminary result on using energetic particle gradients and anistotropies to diagnose magnetopause structures near mission-identified reconnection sites.