[1] The High Resolution Dynamics Limb Sounder (HIRDLS) experiment was designed to provide global temperature and composition data on the region from the upper troposphere to the mesopause with vertical and horizontal resolution not previously available. The science objectives are the study of small-scale dynamics and transports, including stratosphere-troposphere exchange, upper troposphere/lower stratosphere chemistry, aerosol, cirrus and PSC distributions, and gravity waves. The instrument features 21 channels, low noise levels, high vertical resolution, and a mechanical cooler for long life. During launch most of the optical aperture became obscured, so that only a potion of an optical beam width at a large azimuth from the orbital plane on the side away from the Sun can see the atmosphere. Irrecoverable loss of capabilities include limitation of coverage to the region 65°S-82°N and inability to obtain longitudinal resolution finer than an orbital spacing. While this optical blockage also impacted radiometric performance, extensive effort has gone into developing corrections for the several effects of the obstruction, so that radiances from some of the channels can be put into retrievals for temperature. Changes were also necessary for the retrieval algorithm. The validation of the resulting temperature retrievals is presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of these corrections. The random errors range from $0.5 K at 20 km to $1.0 at 60 km, close to those predicted. Comparisons with high-resolution radiosondes, lidars, ACE-FTS, and ECMWF analyses give a consistent picture of HIRDLS temperatures being 1-2 K warm from 200 to 10 hPa and within ±2 K of standards from 200 to 2 hPa (but warmer in the region of the tropical tropopause), above which HIRDLS appears to be cold. Comparisons show that both COSMIC and HIRDLS can see small vertical features down to about 2 km

Introductions or invasions of nonnative organisms can mediate major changes in the trophic structure of aquatic ecosystems. Here we document multitrophic level impacts in a spatially extensive system that played out over more than a century. Positive interactions among exotic vertebrate and invertebrate predators caused a substantial and abrupt shift in community composition resulting in a trophic cascade that extended to primary producers and to a nonaquatic species, the bald eagle. The opossum shrimp, Mysis diluviana, invaded Flathead Lake, Montana, the largest freshwater lake in the western United States. Lake trout had been introduced 80 y prior but remained at low densities until nonnative Mysis became established. The bottom-dwelling mysids eliminated a recruitment bottleneck for lake trout by providing a deep water source of food where little was available previously. Lake trout subsequently flourished on mysids and this voracious piscivore now dominates the lake fishery; formerly abundant kokanee were extirpated, and native bull and westslope cutthroat trout are imperiled. Predation by Mysis shifted zooplankton and phytoplankton community size structure. Bayesian change point analysis of primary productivity (27-y time series) showed a significant step increase of 55 mg C m −2 d −1 (i.e., 21% rise) concurrent with the mysid invasion, but little trend before or after despite increasing nutrient loading. Mysis facilitated predation by lake trout and indirectly caused the collapse of kokanee, redirecting energy flow through the ecosystem that would otherwise have been available to other top predators (bald eagles).

The Energetic Particle Detector (EPD) Investigation is one of 5 fields-andparticles investigations on the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission. MMS comprises 4 spacecraft flying in close formation in highly elliptical, near-Earth-equatorial orbits targeting understanding of the fundamental physics of the important physical process called magnetic reconnection using Earth's magnetosphere as a plasma laboratory. EPD comprises two sensor types, the Energetic Ion Spectrometer (EIS) with one instrument on each of the 4 spacecraft, and the Fly's Eye Energetic Particle Spectrometer (FEEPS) with 2 instruments on each of the 4 spacecraft. EIS measures energetic ion energy, angle and elemental compositional distributions from a required low energy limit of 20 keV for protons and 45 keV for oxygen ions, up to > 0.5 MeV (with capabilities to measure up to > 1 MeV). FEEPS measures instantaneous all sky images of energetic electrons from 25 keV to > 0.5 MeV, and also measures total ion energy distributions from 45 keV to > 0.5 MeV to be used in conjunction with EIS to measure all sky ion distributions. In this report we describe the EPD investigation and the details of the EIS sensor. Specifically we describe EPD-level science objectives, the science and measurement requirements, and the challenges that the EPD team had in meeting these requirements. Here we also describe the design and operation of the EIS instruments, their calibrated performances, and the EIS in-flight and ground operations. Blake et al. (The Flys Eye Energetic Particle Spectrometer (FEEPS) contribution to the Energetic Particle Detector (EPD) investigation of the Magnetospheric Magnetoscale (MMS) Mission, this issue) describe the design and operation of the FEEPS instruments, their calibrated performances, and the FEEPS in-flight and ground operations. The MMS spacecraft will launch in early 2015, and over its 2-year mission will provide comprehensive measurements of magnetic reconnection at Earth's magnetopause during the 18 months that comprise orbital phase 1, and magnetic reconnection within Earth's magnetotail during the about 6 months that comprise orbital phase 2.Keywords NASA mission · Magnetospheric multiscale · Magnetosphere · Magnetic reconnection · Space plasma · Particle acceleration 1 EPD Introduction, Background, Science Goals Background and OverviewThe purpose of NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission, as described by Burch et al. (this issue), is to provide understanding of the fundamental physics of the critical energy conversion process of magnetized space plasmas called Magnetic Reconnection. Magnetic reconnection is a spatially localized process that converts magnetic energy that is derived from the flow energy of ionized gases (plasmas), into particle energy in the form of different forms of plasma flow, heating, and particle energization To provide that understanding, the MMS mission comprises 4 spacecraft that fly in formation (10 to 400 km apart) in highly elliptical orbits (1.2 × 12 to 1.2 × 25 RE), thereby ob...

The Energetic Particle Detector (EPD) Investigation is one of five particles and fields investigations on the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission. This mission consists of four satellites operating in close proximity in elliptical, low-inclination orbits, and is focused upon the fundamental physics of magnetic reconnection. The Energetic Particle Detector (EPD) investigation aboard the four MMS spacecraft consists of two instrument designs, the EIS (Energetic Ion Spectrometer) and the FEEPS (Fly's Eye Electron Proton Spectrometer). This present paper describes FEEPS from an instrument physics and engineering point of view, and provides some test and calibration data to facilitate effective analysis and use of the flight data for scientific purposes.A FEEPS consists of six Heads, each composed of two Eyes. Each eye is a particle telescope with a single silicon detector; there are nine electron eyes and three ion eyes per FEEPS. The energy coverage is from 25 keV to 650 keV for electrons and 45 keV to 650 keV for ions. Each eye has sixteen energy channels, the spacing of which can be modified by command. The fields of view and pointing of each eye are designed to provide a broad, instantaneous field of view for the twelve eyes per FEEPS.There are two FEEPS per MMS spacecraft mounted such that the pair along with the single EIS provide more than 3π-sr instantaneous solid-angle coverage and complete coverage in the equatorial region. A twenty-second spacecraft rotation period is divided into sixty-four sectors to provide detailed temporal and spatial sampling.

We present multipoint observations of earthward moving dipolarization fronts and energetic particle injections from NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale mission with a focus on electron acceleration. From a case study during a substorm on 02 August 2015, we find that electrons are only accelerated over a finite energy range, from a lower energy threshold at ~7–9 keV up to an upper energy cutoff in the hundreds of keV range. At energies lower than the threshold energy, electron fluxes decrease, potentially due to precipitation by strong parallel electrostatic wavefields or initial sources in the lobes. Electrons at energies higher than the threshold are accelerated cumulatively by a series of impulsive magnetic dipolarization events. This case demonstrates how the upper energy cutoff increases, in this case from ~130 keV to >500 keV, with each dipolarization/injection during sustained activity. We also present a simple model accounting for these energy limits that reveals that electron energization is dominated by betatron acceleration.