NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission Research Articles

Earth's Alfvén Wings Driven by the April 2023 Coronal Mass Ejection

AbstractWe report a rare regime of Earth's magnetosphere interaction with sub‐Alfvénic solar wind in which the windsock‐like magnetosphere transforms into one with Alfvén wings. In the magnetic cloud of a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) on 24 April 2023, NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale mission distinguishes the following features: (a) unshocked and accelerated low‐beta CME plasma coming directly against Earth's dayside magnetosphere; (b) dynamical wing filaments representing new channels of magnetic connection between the magnetosphere and foot points of the Sun's erupted flux rope; (c) cold CME ions observed with energized counter‐streaming electrons, evidence of CME plasma captured due to by reconnection between magnetic‐cloud and Alfvén‐wing field lines. The reported measurements advance our knowledge of CME interaction with planetary magnetospheres, and open new opportunities to understand how sub‐Alfvénic plasma flows impact astrophysical bodies such as Mercury, moons of Jupiter, and exoplanets close to their host stars.

On the Propagation of Whistler‐Mode Waves in the Magnetic Ducts

AbstractThis paper studies extremely low frequency (ELF) whistler‐mode waves' behavior within small‐scale magnetic field irregularities in the Earth's magnetosphere, known as magnetic ducts. Based on the magnetic fields' magnitude inside and outside these ducts, they are categorized as high‐magnetic ducts and low‐magnetic ducts (LBD). Using the whistler‐mode dispersion relation analysis, our primary focus is to show that LBDs are prone to leak electromagnetic energy outside the duct. We further investigate the hypothesis that whistlers can propagate within LBDs without any signal loss when the width of the duct corresponds to an integer multiple of the perpendicular wavelengths of the waves inside it. This condition offers a straightforward and effective method for identifying non‐leaking eigenmodes of LBDs. Our analysis of this non‐leaking condition reveals that every LBD possesses a finite number of non‐leaking eigenmodes directly proportional to the duct's width and the magnitude of the ambient magnetic field within it. The analytical results are then validated using two‐dimensional, time‐dependent simulations of the electron‐Magnetohydrodynamics model. Also, we model the non‐leaking propagation of an ELF whistler‐mode wave observed inside the LBD by the NASA Magnetospheric Multiscale mission satellites.

Direct Evidence of Electron Acceleration at the Dipolarization Front

The dramatic changes in the magnetic field at the dipolarization front (DF) provide a suitable environment for electron acceleration, which usually can cause the flux enhancement of energetic electrons behind the front. However, it is unknown whether energetic electrons observed at the DF are energized locally, and which mechanism accelerates the electrons at the DF is unclear. Our study performs a direct quantitative analysis to reveal the acceleration process of energetic electrons at the DF using the high-time-resolution data from NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale mission. The fluxes of energetic electrons at 90° are enhanced at the front. Under adiabatic conditions, our quantitative analysis indicates that these electrons at the front could be locally accelerated to over 100 keV by betatron acceleration. Eventually, the electron temperature anisotropy formed via the betatron mechanism could provide the free energy to excite whistler waves at the DF. Our quantitative study provides, for the first time, strong direct evidence for the local electron acceleration at the DF.

Energy Partition and Balance at Dipolarization Fronts

AbstractDipolarization fronts (DFs) have been documented as important structures contributing to energy conversion and flux transport in Earth's magnetotail. However, energy partition and balance at DFs still remain elusive. Using high‐cadence data from NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale mission, we preform a comprehensive investigation of energy budgets at the DFs. We find that material derivatives of particle energy densities in the DF frame are basically close to zero, indicating that particles experience negligible heating and/or acceleration and that the energy released at the DFs is predominantly manifested in the form of energy flux. The energy flux is found to be dominated by ion and electron enthalpy flux, ion heat flux, and Poynting flux, with electron enthalpy flux being locally elevated. In addition, the energy flux tends to increase during the DFs' earthward propagation, without exhibiting clear asymmetry in the dawn‐dusk direction. These results help further understand energy budgets at the DFs.

Kinetic Generation of Whistler Waves in the Turbulent Magnetosheath.

The Earth's magnetosheath (MSH) is governed by numerous physical processes which shape the particle velocity distributions and contribute to the heating of the plasma. Among them are whistler waves which can interact with electrons. We investigate whistler waves detected in the quasi‐parallel MSH by NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale mission. We find that the whistler waves occur even in regions that are predicted stable to wave growth by electron temperature anisotropy. Whistlers are observed in ion‐scale magnetic minima and are associated with electrons having butterfly‐shaped pitch‐angle distributions. We investigate in detail one example and, with the support of modeling by the linear numerical dispersion solver Waves in Homogeneous, Anisotropic, Multicomponent Plasmas, we demonstrate that the butterfly distribution is unstable to the observed whistler waves. We conclude that the observed waves are generated locally. The result emphasizes the importance of considering complete 3D particle distribution functions, and not only the temperature anisotropy, when studying plasma wave instabilities.

On the origin of “patchy” energy conversion in electron diffusion regions

During magnetic reconnection, field lines interconnect in electron diffusion regions (EDRs). In some EDRs, the reconnection and energy conversion rates are controlled by a steady out-of-plane electric field. In other EDRs, the energy conversion rate J→·E→′ is “patchy,” with electron-scale large-amplitude positive and negative peaks. We investigate 22 EDRs observed by NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale mission in a wide range of conditions to determine the cause of patchy J→·E→′. The patchiness of the energy conversion is quantified and correlated with seven parameters describing various aspects of the asymptotic inflow regions that affect the structure, stability, and efficiency of reconnection. We find that (1) neither the guide field strength nor the asymmetries in the inflow ion pressure, electron pressure, nor number density are well correlated with the patchiness of the EDR energy conversion; (2) the out-of-plane axes of the 22 EDRs are typically fairly well aligned with the “preferred” axes, which bisect the time-averaged inflow magnetic fields and maximize the reconnection rate; and (3) the time-variability in the upstream magnetic field direction is best correlated with the patchiness of the EDR J→·E→′. A 3D fully kinetic simulation of reconnection with a non-uniform inflow magnetic field is analyzed; the variation in the magnetic field generates secondary X-lines, which develop to maximize the reconnection rate for the time-varying inflow magnetic field. The results suggest that magnetopause reconnection, for which the inflow magnetic field direction is often highly variable, may commonly be patchy in space, at least at the electron scale.

Electron energization and thermal to non-thermal energy partition during earth's magnetotail reconnection

Electrons in earth's magnetotail are energized significantly both in the form of heating and in the form of acceleration to non-thermal energies. While magnetic reconnection is considered to play an important role in this energization, it still remains unclear how electrons are energized and how energy is partitioned between thermal and non-thermal components. Here, we show, based on in situ observations by NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale mission combined with multi-component spectral fitting methods, that the average electron energy ε¯ (or equivalently temperature) is substantially higher when the locally averaged electric field magnitude |E| is also higher. While this result is consistent with the classification of “plasma-sheet” and “tail-lobe” reconnection during which reconnection is considered to occur on closed and open magnetic field lines, respectively, it further suggests that a stochastic Fermi acceleration in 3D, reconnection-driven turbulence is essential for the production and confinement of energetic electrons in the reconnection region. The puzzle is that the non-thermal power-law component can be quite small even when the electric field is large and the bulk population is significantly heated. The fraction of non-thermal electron energies varies from sample to sample between ∼20% and ∼60%, regardless of the electric field magnitude. Interestingly, these values of non-thermal fractions are similar to those obtained for the above-the-looptop hard x-ray coronal sources for solar flares.

Cross-scale Dynamics Driven by Plasma Jet Braking in Space

Abstract Plasma jets are ubiquitous in space. In geospace, jets can be generated by magnetic reconnection. These reconnection jets, typically at fluid scale, brake in the near-Earth region, dissipate their energies, and drive plasma dynamics at kinetic scales, generating field-aligned currents that are crucial to magnetospheric dynamics. Understanding of the cross-scale dynamics is fundamentally important, but observation of coupling among phenomena at various scales is highly challenging. Here we report, using unprecedentedly high-cadence data from NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission, the first observation of cross-scale dynamics driven by jet braking in geospace. We find that jet braking causes MHD-scale distortion of magnetic field lines and development of an ion-scale jet front that hosts strong Hall electric fields. Parallel electric fields arising from the ion-scale Hall potential generate intense electron-scale field-aligned currents, which drive strong Debye-scale turbulence. Debye-scale waves conversely limit intensity of the field-aligned currents, thereby coupling back to the large-scale dynamics. Our study can help in understanding how energy deposited in large-scale structures is transferred into small-scale structures in space.

Magnetospheric Multiscale Observations of an Expanding Oxygen Wave in Magnetic Reconnection

AbstractHeavier plasma species such as oxygen ions can have a large impact on the magnetic reconnection process. It has been hypothesized that the acceleration of demagnetized oxygen ions by the Hall electric field will lead to the formation of an oxygen wave that expands into the exhaust. By comparing data from NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale mission to a fully kinetic particle‐in‐cell simulation, we can for the first time provide observational evidence of such an expanding oxygen wave. The wave is characterized by an oxygen jet consisting of cold ions directed toward the neutral sheet associated with a density cavity. This density cavity forms as the are subject to collective acceleration by the Hall electric field leaving behind a region of low‐density oxygen ions. Our results are important for the understanding of the role and effect of oxygen ions in magnetic reconnection.

Multi-beam energy moments of measured compound ion velocity distributions

Compound ion distributions, fi(v), have been measured with high-time resolution by NASA's Magnetospheric Multi-Scale Mission (MMS) and have been found in reconnection simulations. A compound distribution, fi(v), consisting, for example, of essentially disjoint pieces will be called a multi-beam distribution and modeled as a sum of “beams,” fi(v) = f1(v) + ⋯ + fN(v). Velocity moments of fi(v) are taken beam by beam and summed. Such multi-beam moments of fi(v) have advantages over the customary standard velocity moments of fi(v), for which there is only one mean flow velocity. For example, the standard thermal energy moment of a pair of equal and opposite cold particle beams is non-zero even though each beam has zero thermal energy. We therefore call this thermal energy pseudothermal. By contrast, a multi-beam moment of two or more beams has no pseudothermal energy. We develop three different ways of approximating a compound ion velocity distribution, fi(v), as a sum of beams and finding multi-beam moments for both a compound fi(v) measured by MMS in the dayside magnetosphere during reconnection and a compound fi(v) found in a particle-in-cell simulation of magnetotail reconnection. The three methods are (i) a visual method in which the velocity centroid of each beam is estimated and the beam densities are determined self-consistently, (ii) a k-means method in which particles in a particle representation of fi(v) are sorted into a minimum energy configuration of N (= k) clusters, and (iii) a nonlinear least squares method based on a fit to a sum of N kappa functions. Multi-beam energy moments are calculated and compared with standard moments for the thermal energy density, pressure tensor, thermal energy flux (heat plus enthalpy fluxes), bulk kinetic energy density, ram pressure, and bulk kinetic energy flux. Applying this new formalism to real data demonstrates in detail how multi-beam techniques provide new insights into the energetics of observed space plasmas.

Evaluating the deHoffmann‐Teller Cross‐Shock Potential at Real Collisionless Shocks

AbstractShock waves are common in the heliosphere and beyond. The collisionless nature of most astrophysical plasmas allows for the energy processed by shocks to be partitioned amongst particle sub‐populations and electromagnetic fields via physical mechanisms that are not well understood. The electrostatic potential across such shocks is frame dependent. In a frame where the incident bulk velocity is parallel to the magnetic field, the deHoffmann‐Teller frame, the potential is linked directly to the ambipolar electric field established by the electron pressure gradient. Thus measuring and understanding this potential solves the electron partition problem, and gives insight into other competing shock processes. Integrating measured electric fields in space is problematic since the measurements can have offsets that change with plasma conditions. The offsets, once integrated, can be as large or larger than the shock potential. Here we exploit the high‐quality field and plasma measurements from NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale mission to attempt this calculation. We investigate recent adaptations of the deHoffmann‐Teller frame transformation to include time variability, and conclude that in practice these face difficulties inherent in the 3D time‐dependent nature of real shocks by comparison to 1D simulations. Potential estimates based on electron fluid and kinetic analyses provide the most robust measures of the deHoffmann‐Teller potential, but with some care direct integration of the electric fields can be made to agree. These results suggest that it will be difficult to independently assess the role of other processes, such as scattering by shock turbulence, in accounting for the electron heating.

Calibrating Electrostatic Deflection of Charged Particle Sensors Using Ambient Plasma Measurements.

As space‐based charged particle measurement pushes the technical envelope, resolution, both spatially and temporally, is ever improving. As such, the knowledge of the associated error must also improve. We present a method for correlating data collected from multiple sensors at different times in order to estimate the pointing error of each sensor. The method is demonstrated using flight data from the Dual Ion Spectrometer suite, part of the Fast Plasma Investigation on the NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale mission. By looking at signals with sharp features in the direction of spacecraft spin, the relative error in look direction between sensors can be estimated with sub‐degree precision, roughly 20 times better than the native resolution in the azimuthal (spin) direction. These sharp features appear in nature often enough that a sufficiently large sample size can be identified, using an automated filter of routine science data, to calibrate the system, or post correct measured data. The relative pointing error can then be trended over time to monitor the evolution/aging of the measurement system. These data inform calibration/correction methods, should the error grow to a point where science quality is adversely affected.

Multibeam Energy Moments of Multibeam Particle Velocity Distributions

AbstractHigh‐resolution electron and ion velocity distributions, f(v), which consist of N effectively disjoint beams, have been measured by NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission and in reconnection simulations. Commonly used standard velocity moments assume a single mean‐flow velocity for the entire distribution. This can lead to counterintuitive results for a multibeam f(v). An example is the standard thermal energy density moment (at a given space‐time point) of a pair of equal and opposite cold particle beams. This standard moment is nonzero even though each beam has zero thermal energy density. By contrast, a multibeam moment of two or more cold beams at a given position and time has no thermal energy. A multibeam moment is obtained by taking a standard moment of each beam and then summing over beams. In this paper we will generalize these notions, explore their consequences, and apply them to an f(v) which is a sum of tri‐Maxwellians. Both standard and multibeam energy moments have coherent and incoherent pieces. Examples of incoherent moments are the thermal energy density, the pressure, and the thermal energy flux (enthalpy flux plus heat flux). Corresponding coherent moments are the bulk kinetic energy density, the ram pressure, and the bulk kinetic energy flux. The difference between a standard incoherent moment and its multibeam counterpart will be defined as the “pseudothermal part” of the standard moment. The sum of a pair of corresponding coherent and incoherent moments is the undecomposed moment. Undecomposed standard moments are always equal to the corresponding undecomposed multibeam moments.

Parallel Electrostatic Waves Associated With Turbulent Plasma Mixing in the Kelvin‐Helmholtz Instability

AbstractThe Kelvin‐Helmholtz Instability (KHI) is thought to be an important driver of mass and momentum transfer from the solar wind to the Earth's magnetosphere. We present observations from NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale mission of ion acoustic‐like waves associated with turbulence during the KHI interval on 8 September 2015. These parallel electrostatic waves are nonlinear, can have amplitudes in excess of 100 mV/m, and may be associated with a field‐aligned potential drop. We perform a survey of all vortices in the 8 September 2015 event, investigating the occurrence of electrostatic waves below the ion plasma frequency. We find that they tend to occur in the turbulent region in the middle of the KHI vortices, independent of the presence of compressed or intermittent currents. This suggests that the waves occur in the presence of plasma mixing in the vortex region and that they may play a part in the overall turbulent dissipation process.

Magnetic Reconnection in the Space Sciences: Past, Present, and Future

AbstractMagnetic reconnection converts, often explosively, stored magnetic energy to particle energy in space and in the laboratory. Through processes operating on length scales that are tiny, it facilitates energy conversion over dimensions of, in some cases, hundreds of Earth radii. In addition, it is the mechanism behind large current disruptions in fusion machines, and it can explain eruptive behavior in astrophysics. We have known about the importance of magnetic reconnection for quite some time based on space observations. Theory and modeling employed magnetized fluids, a very simplistic description. While successful at modeling the large‐scale consequences of reconnection, it is ill suited to describe the engine itself. This is because, at its heart, magnetic reconnection in space is kinetic, that is, governed by the intricate interaction of charged particles with the electromagnetic fields they create. This complex interaction occurs in very localized regions and involves very short temporal variations. Researching reconnection requires the ability to measure these processes as well as to express them in models vastly more complex than fluid approaches. Until very recently, neither of these capabilities existed. With the advent of NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale mission and modern modeling advances, this has now changed, and we have now determined its small‐scale structure in exquisite detail. In this paper, we review recent research results to predict what will be achieved in the future. We discuss how reconnection contributes to the evolution of larger‐scale systems, and its societal impacts in the context of threatening space hazards, customarily referred to as “space weather.”

Response of Low Latitude Ionization Towards Intense Geomagnetic Storm in 2018

The paper reports the effects of intense Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) and Corotating Interaction Region (CIR) geomagnetic storms (Dst≤-100) on the Total Electron Content (TEC) at Lucknow during August 24-31, 2018 using NASA Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission (MMS). Enhancement of TEC has been observed during the onset of these storms.

Systematic Uncertainties in Plasma Parameters Reported by the Fast Plasma Investigation on NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission

AbstractSystematic uncertainties in the conversion of measured counts to phase space density by charged particle instrumentation result in errors in reported plasma moments (e.g., density, velocity, and temperature). Unlike previous particle instrumentation that relied on a spacecraft spin to sample all look‐directions, the Fast Plasma Investigation (FPI) suite on NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale mission nearly simultaneously images the full sky. This configuration results in unprecedented time resolution but also introduces the possibility of spin tones in plasma moments, in particular electron bulk velocity. Here we characterize the effect of systematic linear errors of corrected FPI phase space densities on its reported plasma moments. We find that the flat‐fielding correction factors (i.e., scale factor errors) of FPI are typically accurate to within a few percent but can nonetheless result in significant spin tones in magnetospheric plasmas.

High‐Frequency Wave Generation in Magnetotail Reconnection: Linear Dispersion Analysis

AbstractPlasma and wave measurements from the NASA Magnetospheric Multiscale mission are presented for magnetotail reconnection events on 3 July and 11 July 2017. Linear dispersion analyses were performed using distribution functions comprising up to six drifting bi‐Maxwellian distributions. In both events electron crescent‐shaped distributions are shown to be responsible for upper hybrid waves near the X‐line. In an adjacent location within the 3 July event a monodirectional field‐aligned electron beam drove parallel‐propagating beam‐mode waves. In the 11 July event an electron distribution consisting of a drifting core and two crescents was shown to generate upper‐hybrid and beam‐mode waves at three different frequencies, explaining the observed broadband waves. Multiple harmonics of the upper hybrid waves were observed but cannot be explained by the linear dispersion analysis since they result from nonlinear beam interactions.

Ion Kinetics in a Hot Flow Anomaly: MMS Observations

AbstractHot Flow Anomalies (HFAs) are transients observed at planetary bow shocks, formed by the shock interaction with a convected interplanetary current sheet. The primary interpretation relies on reflected ions channeled upstream along the current sheet. The short duration of HFAs has made direct observations of this process difficult. We employ high resolution measurements by NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission to probe the ion microphysics within a HFA. Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission data reveal a smoothly varying internal density and pressure, which increase toward the trailing edge of the HFA, sweeping up particles trapped within the current sheet. We find remnants of reflected or other backstreaming ions traveling along the current sheet, but most of these are not fast enough to out‐run the incident current sheet convection. Despite the high level of internal turbulence, incident and backstreaming ions appear to couple gyro‐kinetically in a coherent manner.

The physical foundation of the reconnection electric field

Magnetic reconnection is a key charged particle transport and energy conversion process in environments ranging from astrophysical systems to laboratory plasmas [Yamada et al., Rev. Mod. Phys. 82, 603–664 (2010)]. Magnetic reconnection facilitates plasma transport by establishing new connections of magnetic flux tubes, and it converts, often explosively, energy stored in the magnetic field to kinetic energy of charged particles [J. L. Burch and J. F. Drake, Am. Sci. 97, 392–299 (2009)]. The intensity of the magnetic reconnection process is measured by the reconnection electric field, which regulates the rate of flux tube connectivity changes. The change of magnetic connectivity occurs in the current layer of the diffusion zone, where the plasma transport is decoupled from the transport of magnetic flux. Here we report on computer simulations and analytic theory to provide a self-consistent understanding of the role of the reconnection electric field, which extends substantially beyond the simple change of magnetic connections. Rather, we find that the reconnection electric field is essential to maintain the current density in the diffusion region, which would otherwise be dissipated by a set of processes. Natural candidates for current dissipation are the average convection of current carriers away from the reconnection region by the outflow of accelerated particles, or the average rotation of the current density by the magnetic field reversal in the vicinity. Instead, we show here that the current dissipation is the result of thermal effects, underlying the statistical interaction of current-carrying particles with the adjacent magnetic field. We find that this interaction serves to redirect the directed acceleration of the reconnection electric field to thermal motion. This thermalization manifests itself in form of quasi-viscous terms in the thermal energy balance of the current layer. This collisionless viscosity, found in the pressure evolution equation, dominates near the x-line. These quasi-viscous terms act to increase the average thermal energy. Our predictions regarding current and thermal energy balance are readily amenable to exploration in the laboratory or by satellite missions, in particular, by NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale mission.