Abstract
Abstract. The Cluster mission has been operated successfully for 14 years. During this time period, the evolution of the orbit has enabled Cluster to sample many more magnetospheric regions than was initially anticipated. So far, the separation of the Cluster spacecraft has been changed more than 30 times and has ranged from a few kilometres up to 36 000 km. These orbital changes have enabled the science team to address a wide variety of scientific objectives in key regions of Earth's geospace environment: the solar wind and bow shock, the magnetopause, polar cusps, magnetotail, plasmasphere and the auroral acceleration region. Recent results have shed new light on solar wind turbulence. They showed that the magnetosheath can be asymmetric under low Mach number and that it can contain density enhancement that may affect the magnetosphere. The magnetopause was found to be thinner and to have a higher current density on the duskside than on the dawnside. New methods have been used to obtain characteristic of the magnetotail current sheet and high-temporal-resolution measurements of electron pitch angle within flux transfer events (FTEs). Plasmaspheric wind has been discovered, and the refilling of the plasmasphere was observed for the first time over a very wide range of L shells. New models of global electric and magnetic fields of the magnetosphere have been obtained where Cluster, due to its polar orbit, has been essential. Finally, magnetic reconnection was viewed for the first time with high-resolution wave and electron measurements and acceleration of plasma was observed during times of varying rate of magnetic reconnection. The analysis of Cluster data was facilitated by the creation of the Cluster Science Data System (CSDS) and the Cluster Science Archive (CSA). Those systems were implemented to provide, for the first time for a plasma physics mission, a long-term public archive of all calibrated high-resolution data from all instruments.
Highlights
The Cluster mission has become one of the most successful plasma physics mission ever
Cluster will cross the exterior cusp and Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) the magnetopause in the equatorial plane, looking at the effect of subsolar reconnection in the cusp and the extent of the reconnection line in latitude. With their separation in XYGSE, the dawn and dusk magnetosheath will be observed at the same time, which will allow the investigation of possible asymmetries
Asymmetries in the magnetosphere may be expected in such conditions, and this has been an active topic of research in recent years
Summary
The Cluster mission has become one of the most successful plasma physics mission ever. Its success has resulted from the ability to measure, for the first time, space plasma parameters in three dimensions From these measurements, it became possible to derive gradients, curls and the divergence of plasma parameters to directly obtain the electric currents, flow vorticity and electric fields that are fundamental to a general understanding of plasma phenomena in space. It became possible to derive gradients, curls and the divergence of plasma parameters to directly obtain the electric currents, flow vorticity and electric fields that are fundamental to a general understanding of plasma phenomena in space This capability resulted in the publication of more than 2000 papers in leading magnetospheric journals, including Annales Geophysicae, Journal of Geophysical Research and Geophysical Research Letters.
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