MMS Fly Along with Magnetopause Reconnection

  • Released Thursday, May 12, 2016
  • Updated Tuesday, August 23, 2016 at 3:59PM
  • ID: 4454

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.



Credits

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


Papers

This visualization is based on the following papers:

Missions

This visualization is related to the following missions:

Series

This visualization can be found in the following series:

Datasets used in this visualization

MMS MMS-FIELDS (Collected with the FIELDS sensor)
Observed Data2015-10-16T13:03:34.003(TAI) - 2015-10-16T13:07:43.934(TAI)
MMS MMS-FPI (Collected with the Fast Plasma Investigation sensor)
Event List2015-10-16T13:03:34.003(TAI) - 2015-10-16T13:07:43.934(TAI)

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



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