Zoom in to MMS and Magnetopause Reconnection

  • Released Thursday, May 12, 2016
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The visualization starts with an overview of the MMS orbit.

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.

Closing in on MMS near the magnetopause.

Closing in on MMS near the magnetopause.

Closeup on the MMS tetrahedral formation. The spacecraft are about 10 kilometers from each other.

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.

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.

Near the height of the reconnection event, electrons (yellow) are flying in all directions.

Credits

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio

This page was originally published on Thursday, May 12, 2016.
This page was last updated on Sunday, January 5, 2025 at 12:07 AM EST.

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Related papers

Electron-scale measurements of magnetic reconnection in space

Electron-scale measurements of magnetic reconnection in space

Datasets used

  • MMS-FIELDS [MMS: FIELDS]

    ID: 920
    Type: Observed Data Sensor: FIELDS Dates used: 2015-10-16T13:03:34.003(TAI) - 2015-10-16T13:07:43.934(TAI)
    See all pages that use this dataset

  • MMS-FPI [MMS: Fast Plasma Investigation]

    ID: 921
    Type: Event List Sensor: Fast Plasma Investigation Dates used: 2015-10-16T13:03:34.003(TAI) - 2015-10-16T13:07:43.934(TAI)
    See all pages that use this dataset

Note: While we identify the data sets used on this page, we do not store any further details, nor the data sets themselves on our site.