The Spin-Plane Double Probe Electric Field Instrument for MMS

Lindqvist, Per‐Arne; Olsson, Göran; Torbert, R. B.; King, B.; Granoff, M.; Rau, D.; Needell, G.; Turco, Simona; Dors, I.; Beckman, P.; Macri, J.; Frost, Colin; Salwen, J.; Eriksson, Anders; Åhlén, L.; Khotyaintsev, Yuri V.; Porter, J.; Lappalainen, K.; Ergun, R. E.; Wermeer, W.; Tucker, S. C.

doi:10.1007/s11214-014-0116-9

Cited by 619 publications

(586 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Also listed in Table 1 is the SOC (Science Operations Center). Details of these mission elements are provided in other papers in this issue (Torbert et al 2014;Ergun 2014;Russell et al 2014;Lindqvist et al 2014;Pollock 2015;Mauk et al 2014;Blake 2015;Young et al 2014;Torkar et al 2014). The arrangement of the scientific payload of each spacecraft is shown in Fig.…”

Section: Instrument Descriptionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Magnetospheric Multiscale Overview and Science Objectives

et al. 2015

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Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS), a NASA four-spacecraft constellation mission launched on March 12, 2015, will investigate magnetic reconnection in the boundary regions of the Earth's magnetosphere, particularly along its dayside boundary with the solar wind and the neutral sheet in the magnetic tail. The most important goal of MMS is to conduct a definitive experiment to determine what causes magnetic field lines to reconnect in a collisionless plasma. The significance of the MMS results will extend far beyond the Earth's magnetosphere because reconnection is known to occur in interplanetary space and in the solar corona where it is responsible for solar flares and the disconnection events known as coronal mass ejections. Active research is also being conducted on reconnection in the laboratory and specifically in magnetic-confinement fusion devices in which it is a limiting factor in achieving and maintaining electron temperatures high enough to initiate fusion. Finally, reconnection is proposed as the cause of numerous phenomena throughout the universe such as comet-tail disconnection events, magnetar flares, supernova ejections, and dynamics of neutron-star accretion disks. The MMS mission design is focused on answering specific questions about reconnection at the Earth's magnetosphere. The prime focus of the mission is on determining the kinetic processes occurring in the electron diffusion region that are responsible for reconnection and that determine how it is initiated; but the mission will also place that physics into the context of the broad spectrum of physical processes associated with reconnection. Connections to other disciplines such as solar physics, astrophysics, and laboratory plasma physics are expected to be made through theory and modeling as informed by the MMS results.

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Section: Instrument Descriptionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Magnetospheric Multiscale Overview and Science Objectives

et al. 2015

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“…An ADP preamplifier and AEB (Lindqvist et al 2014, this issue) are designed to work as a single unit. There are two AEB units on each spacecraft, one for the +Z ADP preamplifier, the other for the −Z ADP preamplifier.…”

Section: Adp Calibration and Performancementioning

confidence: 99%

“…These sweeps involve stepping the bias current though the full range at moderate resolution (see Lindqvist et al 2014, this issue for details). From these bias current sweeps, one can determine the photoelectron yield and estimate R sh as a function of bias current.…”

Section: Adp Bias Currents and Stub And Guard Voltagesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Axial Double Probe and Fields Signal Processing for the MMS Mission

et al. 2014

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The Axial Double Probe (ADP) instrument measures the DC to ∼ 100 kHz electric field along the spin axis of the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) spacecraft (Burch et al., Space Sci. Rev., 2014, this issue), completing the vector electric field when combined with the spin plane double probes (SDP) (Torbert et al., Space Sci. Rev., 2014, this issue, Lindqvist et al., Space Sci. Rev., 2014. Two cylindrical sensors are separated by over 30 m tip-to-tip, the longest baseline on an axial DC electric field ever attempted in space. The ADP on each of the spacecraft consists of two identical, 12.67 m graphite coilable booms with second, smaller 2.25 m booms mounted on their ends. A significant effort was carried out to assure that the potential field of the MMS spacecraft acts equally on the two sensors and that photo-and secondary electron currents do not vary over the spacecraft spin. The ADP on MMS is expected to measure DC electric field with a precision of ∼ 1 mV/m, a resolution of ∼ 25 µV/m, and a range of ∼ ±1 V/m in most of the plasma environments MMS will encounter. The Digital Signal Processing (DSP) units on the MMS spacecraft are designed to perform analog conditioning, analog-to-digital (A/D) conversion, and digital processing on the ADP, SDP, and search coil magnetometer (SCM) (Le Contel et al., Space Sci. Rev., 2014, this issue) signals. The DSP units include digital filters, spectral processing, a high-speed burst memory, a solitary structure detector, and data compression. The DSP uses precision analog processing with, in most cases, > 100 dB in dynamic range, better that −80 dB common mode rejection in electric field (E) signal processing, and better that −80 dB cross talk between the E and SCM (B) signals. The A/D conversion is at 16 bits with ∼ 1/4 LSB accuracy and ∼ 1 LSB noise. The digital signal processing is powerful and highly flexible allowing for maximum scientific return under a limited telemetry volume. The ADP and DSP are described in this article.

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“…This event, in particular, an encounter with the electron diffusion region by MMS2 has been discussed in detail [27]. The mission and its instruments are described in several articles [1,2,[28][29][30][31][32]. [28,31] at 128 samples/s in Geocentric Solar Ecliptic (GSE) coordinates.…”

Section: Observationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The black lines are from the double probe electric field instrument [28][29][30] at 32 samples/s. During this period, the uncertainty in the E x and E y is ~1 mV/m.…”

Section: Observationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Magnetospheric Multiscale Satellites Observations of Parallel Electric Fields Associated with Magnetic Reconnection

Ergun¹,

Goodrich²,

Wilder³

et al. 2016

Phys. Rev. Lett.

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We report observations from the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) satellites of parallel electric fields (E || ) associated with magnetic reconnection in the sub-solar region of Earth's magnetopause. E || events near the electron diffusion region have amplitudes on the order of 100 mV/m, which are significantly larger than predicted for an anti-parallel reconnection electric field. This article addresses a specific type of E || events, which appear as large-amplitude, near unipolar spikes that are associated with tangled, reconnected magnetic fields. These E || events are primarily in or near a current layer near the separatrix and are interpreted to be double layers that may be responsible for secondary reconnection in tangled magnetic fields or flux ropes. These results are telling of the 3D nature of magnetopause reconnection and indicate that magnetopause reconnection may be often patchy and/or drive turbulence along the separatrix that results in flux ropes and/or tangled magnetic fields. 2

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The Spin-Plane Double Probe Electric Field Instrument for MMS

Cited by 619 publications

References 12 publications

Magnetospheric Multiscale Overview and Science Objectives

Magnetospheric Multiscale Overview and Science Objectives

The Axial Double Probe and Fields Signal Processing for the MMS Mission

Magnetospheric Multiscale Satellites Observations of Parallel Electric Fields Associated with Magnetic Reconnection

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