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Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission

Cross-scale Exploration of Complexity in the Magnetosphere

  • Chapter
Nonequilibrium Phenomena in Plasmas

Part of the book series: Astrophysics and Space Science Library ((ASSL,volume 321))

Abstract

The physical processes in the magnetosphere span a wide range of space and time scales and due to the strong cross-scale coupling among them the fundamental processes at the smallest scales are critical to the large scale processes. For example, many key features of magnetic reconnection and particle acceleration are initiated at the smallest scales, typically the ion gyro-radii, and then couples to meso-scale and macro-scale processes, such as plasmoid formation. The Magnetospheric Muliscale (MMS) mission is a multi spacecraft mission dedicated to the study of plasma physics at the smallest scales and their cross-scale coupling to global processes. Driven by the turbulent solar wind, the magnetosphere is far from equilibrium and exhibits complex behavior over many scales. The processes underlying the multi-scale and intermittent features in the magnetosphere are fundamental to sun-earth connection. Recent results from the four spacecraft Cluster and earlier missions have provided new insights into magnetospheric physics and will form the basis for comprehensive studies of the multi-dimensional properties of the plasma processes and their inter-relationships. MMS mission will focus on the boundary layers connecting the magnetospheric regions and provide detailed spatio-temporal data of processes such as magnetic reconnection, thin current sheets, turbulence and particle acceleration. The cross-scale exploration by MMS mission will target the microphysics that will enable the discovery of the chain of processes underlying sun-earth connection.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, USA

    A. Surjalal Sharma

  2. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, USA

    Steven A. Curtis

Authors
  1. A. Surjalal Sharma
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  2. Steven A. Curtis
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA

    W.B. Burton

  2. University of Leiden, The Netherlands

    W.B. Burton

  3. Faculty of Science, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

    J. M. E. Kuijpers

  4. Astronomical Institute, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    E. P. J. Van Den Heuvel

  5. Astronomical Institute, University of Utrecht, The Netherlands

    H. Van Der Laan

  6. Landessternwarte Heidelberg-Königstuhl, Germany

    I. Appenzeller

  7. The Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, USA

    J. N. Bahcall

  8. Universitá di Padova, Italy

    F. Bertola

  9. University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA

    J. P. Cassinelli

  10. Centre d'Etudes de Saclay, Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France

    C. J. Cesarsky

  11. Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics, University of Oslo, Norway

    O. Engvold

  12. University of Colorado, JILA, Boulder, USA

    R. McCray

  13. Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge, UK

    P. G. Murdin

  14. Istituto Astronomia Arcetri, Firenze, Italy

    F. Pacini

  15. Raman Research Institute, Bangalore, India

    V. Radhakrishnan

  16. School of Science, The University of Tokyo, Japan

    K. Sato

  17. University of California, Berkeley, USA

    F. H. Shu

  18. Astronomical Institute, Moscow State University, Russia

    B. V. Somov

  19. Space Research Institute, Moscow, Russia

    R. A. Sunyaev

  20. Institute of Space & Astronautical Science, Kanagawa, Japan

    Y. Tanaka

  21. CITA, Princeton University, USA

    S. Tremaine

  22. University of Cambridge, UK

    N. O. Weiss

  23. University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA

    A. Surjalal Sharma

  24. Institute for Plasma Research, Gandhinagar, India

    Predhiman K. Kaw

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© 2005 Springer

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Sharma, A.S., Curtis, S.A. (2005). Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission. In: Burton, W., et al. Nonequilibrium Phenomena in Plasmas. Astrophysics and Space Science Library, vol 321. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-3109-2_8

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