MMS Phase 2b: Transitioning to Magnetosphere Science on the Darkside

The visualization starts with an overview of the MMS orbit. This visualization starts with the viewer camera just outside earth 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. 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 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 .