A Space Mission for Cross‐Scale Coupling in the Earth's Magnetosphere

Abstract

AbstractThe Earth's magnetosphere occupies a huge volume in space. Past space missions have identified the basic structures and revealed several phenomena that release significant energy explosively. These activities are discovered through point‐wise measurements in space. Consequently, there is a severe lack of knowledge on the coupling between different activities. A space mission that can address this deficiency is proposed here, building on what previous space missions have revealed. A fleet of eight identical spacecraft in two sets of tetrahedral constellations will enable evaluation of how localized kinetic activities may lead to global changes and vice versa in the Earth's magnetosphere. This mission uses the full capability of a tetrahedral constellation to yield a quantitative determination of physical parameters that govern the mass, momentum, and energy flows between space disturbances at kinetic and global scales. It will also resolve the ambiguity in single‐point measurements to differentiate their temporal and spatial variations. Examples on how to use this mission to extract cross‐scale coupling of activities and tackle outstanding questions in magnetospheric research are discussed.