High Resolution Plasma Measurements From The Fast Plasma Investigation On Magnetospheric Multiscale

Abstract:

NASA’s Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission, launched in March 2015, targets understanding of the fundamental physics of magnetic reconnection using Earth’s magnetosphere as a laboratory within which to study this naturally occurring process. The first mission phase, currently in progress, focuses on reconnection occurring at Earth’s dayside magnetopause. The relevant electron and ion scale processes have never before been fully resolved and differentiated, owing to limitations in the time (thus spatial) resolution available. The Fast Plasma Investigation (FPI) was developed for flight on MMS in order to fully resolve 3D plasma distribution functions on both the ion scale and the substantially smaller electron scale. MMS is designed to provide multi-point measurements of fast plasma, electric and magnetic fields, ion composition and energetic particles at the four points of a variably sized tetrahedron. Thus, MMS enables specification of all relevant plasma parameters and their spatial derivatives in order to understand the roles of the various terms in the Generalized Ohm’s Law that governs the plasma behavior at reconnection sites. In this talk, we provide a brief description of FPI and show a sampling of early results, including MMS crossings of the magnetopause.