Space Physics Seminar fall-2015

The Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission (MMS) is a four-spacecraft mission that was launched into a near equatorial orbit on March 13, 2015. The science investigation that is being carried out with the MMS spacecraft is "Solving Magnetospheric Acceleration, Reconnection, and Turbulence” (or SMART), led by James L. Burch of SwRI. To achieve the science objectives of SMART a comprehensive fields and particles instrument complement was built for each of the observatories. This instrument complement includes fluxgate magnetometers built by UCLA and the Institute for Space Research (Institut für Weltraumforschung, IWF), Graz.

The MMS spacecraft were initially launched into an orbit with post dawn apogee at around 12 Earth radii, and the magnetometers on board MMS were powered up on March 16. The booms were deployed on March 17. Since then the MMS orbit has precessed through midnight and dusk to the dayside, where MMS is now routinely crossing the magnetopause. In this talk I will summarize the scientific objectives of the MMS mission, and review examples of the many different phenomena observed so far by MMS, including substorms and ULF waves, as well as the magnetopause observations.