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The visualization starts with an overview of the MMS orbit. Closing in on MMS near the magnetopause. Closeup on the MMS tetrahedral formation. The spacecraft are about 10 kilometers from each other. Early sampling of the data near magnetopause passage. Note the magnetic field (magenta arrows) appears fairly uniform. Near the height of the reconnection event, electrons (yellow) are flying in all directions. This visualization starts with the viewer camera just outside earth's magnetosphere (the faint grey mesh) looking down on the orbit of the four MMS spacecraft. During this portion of the mission, the apogee of the orbit takes the spacecraft just outside the magnetopause. The lower orbit speed at this location maximizes the time spent there and increases chances of catching a reconnection event which is the goal of the mission.The camera zooms in to a chase of the four spacraft, simultaneously altering the timescale so each movie frame has a smaller time between them. We catch up with the four spacecraft and see the tetrahedral flying formation.The MMS spacecraft are not always collecting data. Due to telemetry limitations, the data is collected in segments, at different sampling rates, and then downloaded to ground-stations on Earth. In this close-up view, we see two segments of data collection, with a short gap of no data between them.The arrows represent the data collected by the spacecraft. To better comprehend changes as the spacecraft moves along, the data are allowed to 'echo' along the spacecraft trail. The length of the vectors represent the relative magnitude of the vector. However, the electron and proton vectors are scaled so equal velocities correspond to vectors of equal magnitude.Magenta represents the direction and magnitude of the magnetic field at the spacecraft position.Yellow represents the direction and magnitude of the bulk motion (total average) velocity of the electrons measured at the spacecraft position.Blue represents the direction and magnitude of the bulk motion (total average) velocity of the protons measured at the spacecraft position. Related pages

Fly along with MMS satellite configuration with particle and field measurements. In this data visualization, we fly along with the MMS spacecraft in tetrahedral formation. The mesh structure in the distance is the magnetopause.Each image frame corresponds to a time step of 30 milliseconds, one of the faster data sampling modes for MMS. The arrows represent the data collected by the spacecraft. To better comprehend changes as the spacecraft moves along, the data are allowed to 'echo' along the spacecraft trail. The length of the vectors represent the relative magnitude of the vector. However, the electron and proton vectors are scaled so equal velocities correspond to vectors of equal magnitude.Magenta represents the direction and magnitude of the magnetic field at the spacecraft position.Yellow represents the direction and magnitude of the bulk motion (total average) velocity of the electrons measured at the spacecraft position.Blue represents the direction and magnitude of the bulk motion (total average) velocity of the protons measured at the spacecraft position. Related pages

A slow fly-around of the MMS tetrahedral formation to better view the 3-dimensional structure of the data. In this data visualization, we fly around with the MMS spacecraft in tetrahedral formation. The mesh structure in the distance is the magnetopause.Each image frame corresponds to a time step of 30 milliseconds, one of the faster data sampling modes for MMS. The arrows represent the data collected by the spacecraft. To better comprehend changes as the spacecraft moves along, the data are allowed to 'echo' along the spacecraft trail. The length of the vectors represent the relative magnitude of the vector. However, the electron and proton vectors are scaled so equal velocities correspond to vectors of equal magnitude.Magenta represents the direction and magnitude of the magnetic field at the spacecraft position.Yellow represents the direction and magnitude of the bulk motion (total average) velocity of the electrons measured at the spacecraft position.Blue represents the direction and magnitude of the bulk motion (total average) velocity of the protons measured at the spacecraft position. Related pages

This movie illustrates two orbits of the four MMS spacecraft. In the latter half of July 2015, the four satellites of the Magnetosphere Multi-scale (MMS) mission move into their tetrahedral formation flying configuration as part of the checkout for the science phase of the mission.During this phase, the four spacecraft will have their orbits adjusted to eventually bring them to within about ten kilometers of each other . Related pages