The Solar Orbiter magnetometer Horbury, T. S.; O’Brien, H.; Carrasco Blazquez, I. ...
Astronomy and astrophysics (Berlin),
10/2020, Letnik:
642
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
The magnetometer instrument on the Solar Orbiter mission is designed to measure the magnetic field local to the spacecraft continuously for the entire mission duration. The need to characterise not ...only the background magnetic field but also its variations on scales from far above to well below the proton gyroscale result in challenging requirements on stability, precision, and noise, as well as magnetic and operational limitations on both the spacecraft and other instruments. The challenging vibration and thermal environment has led to significant development of the mechanical sensor design. The overall instrument design, performance, data products, and operational strategy are described.
Magnetic reconnection in current sheets is a magnetic-to-particle energy conversion process that is fundamental to many space and laboratory plasma systems. In the standard model of reconnection, ...this process occurs in a minuscule electron-scale diffusion region
. On larger scales, ions couple to the newly reconnected magnetic-field lines and are ejected away from the diffusion region in the form of bi-directional ion jets at the ion Alfvén speed
. Much of the energy conversion occurs in spatially extended ion exhausts downstream of the diffusion region
. In turbulent plasmas, which contain a large number of small-scale current sheets, reconnection has long been suggested to have a major role in the dissipation of turbulent energy at kinetic scales
. However, evidence for reconnection plasma jetting in small-scale turbulent plasmas has so far been lacking. Here we report observations made in Earth's turbulent magnetosheath region (downstream of the bow shock) of an electron-scale current sheet in which diverging bi-directional super-ion-Alfvénic electron jets, parallel electric fields and enhanced magnetic-to-particle energy conversion were detected. Contrary to the standard model of reconnection, the thin reconnecting current sheet was not embedded in a wider ion-scale current layer and no ion jets were detected. Observations of this and other similar, but unidirectional, electron jet events without signatures of ion reconnection reveal a form of reconnection that can drive turbulent energy transfer and dissipation in electron-scale current sheets without ion coupling.
The Magnetospheric Multiscale Magnetometers Russell, C. T.; Anderson, B. J.; Baumjohann, W. ...
Space Science Reviews,
03/2016, Letnik:
199, Številka:
1-4
Journal Article, Book Review
Recenzirano
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The success of the Magnetospheric Multiscale mission depends on the accurate measurement of the magnetic field on all four spacecraft. To ensure this success, two independently designed and built ...fluxgate magnetometers were developed, avoiding single-point failures. The magnetometers were dubbed the digital fluxgate (DFG), which uses an ASIC implementation and was supplied by the Space Research Institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the analogue magnetometer (AFG) with a more traditional circuit board design supplied by the University of California, Los Angeles. A stringent magnetic cleanliness program was executed under the supervision of the Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory. To achieve mission objectives, the calibration determined on the ground will be refined in space to ensure all eight magnetometers are precisely inter-calibrated. Near real-time data plays a key role in the transmission of high-resolution observations stored on board so rapid processing of the low-resolution data is required. This article describes these instruments, the magnetic cleanliness program, and the instrument pre-launch calibrations, the planned in-flight calibration program, and the information flow that provides the data on the rapid time scale needed for mission success.
The Search-Coil Magnetometer for MMS Le Contel, O.; Leroy, P.; Roux, A. ...
Space Science Reviews,
03/2016, Letnik:
199, Številka:
1-4
Journal Article, Book Review
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
The tri-axial search-coil magnetometer (SCM) belongs to the FIELDS instrumentation suite on the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission (Torbert et al. in Space Sci. Rev. (
2014
), this issue). It ...provides the three magnetic components of the waves from 1 Hz to 6 kHz in particular in the key regions of the Earth’s magnetosphere namely the subsolar region and the magnetotail. Magnetospheric plasmas being collisionless, such a measurement is crucial as the electromagnetic waves are thought to provide a way to ensure the conversion from magnetic to thermal and kinetic energies allowing local or global reconfigurations of the Earth’s magnetic field. The analog waveforms provided by the SCM are digitized and processed inside the digital signal processor (DSP), within the Central Electronics Box (CEB), together with the electric field data provided by the spin-plane double probe (SDP) and the axial double probe (ADP). On-board calibration signal provided by DSP allows the verification of the SCM transfer function once per orbit. Magnetic waveforms and on-board spectra computed by DSP are available at different time resolution depending on the selected mode. The SCM design is described in details as well as the different steps of the ground and in-flight calibrations.
In December 2019, the International Association of Geomagnetism and Aeronomy (IAGA) Division V Working Group (V-MOD) adopted the thirteenth generation of the International Geomagnetic Reference Field ...(IGRF). This IGRF updates the previous generation with a definitive main field model for epoch 2015.0, a main field model for epoch 2020.0, and a predictive linear secular variation for 2020.0 to 2025.0. This letter provides the equations defining the IGRF, the spherical harmonic coefficients for this thirteenth generation model, maps of magnetic declination, inclination and total field intensity for the epoch 2020.0, and maps of their predicted rate of change for the 2020.0 to 2025.0 time period.
Context.
On 2020 April 19 a coronal mass ejection (CME) was detected in situ by Solar Orbiter at a heliocentric distance of about 0.8 AU. The CME was later observed in situ on April 20 by the Wind ...and BepiColombo spacecraft whilst BepiColombo was located very close to Earth. This CME presents a good opportunity for a triple radial alignment study, as the spacecraft were separated by less than 5° in longitude. The source of the CME, which was launched on April 15, was an almost entirely isolated streamer blowout. The Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO)-A spacecraft observed the event remotely from −75.1° longitude, which is an exceptionally well suited viewpoint for heliospheric imaging of an Earth directed CME.
Aims.
The configuration of the four spacecraft has provided an exceptionally clean link between remote imaging and in situ observations of the CME. We have used the in situ observations of the CME at Solar Orbiter, Wind, and BepiColombo and the remote observations of the CME at STEREO-A to determine the global shape of the CME and its evolution as it propagated through the inner heliosphere.
Methods.
We used three magnetic flux rope models that are based on different assumptions about the flux rope morphology to interpret the large-scale structure of the interplanetary CME (ICME). The 3DCORE model assumes an elliptical cross-section with a fixed aspect-ratio calculated by using the STEREO Heliospheric Imager (HI) observations as a constraint. The other two models are variants of the kinematically-distorted flux rope (KFR) technique, where two flux rope cross-sections are considered: one in a uniform solar wind and another in a solar-minimum-like structured solar wind. Analysis of CME evolution has been complemented by the use of (1) the ELEvoHI model to compare predicted CME arrival times and confirm the connection between the imaging and in situ observations, and (2) the PREDSTORM model, which provides an estimate of the
Dst
index at Earth using Solar Orbiter magnetometer data as if it were a real–time upstream solar wind monitor.
Results.
A clear flattening of the CME cross-section has been observed by STEREO-A, and further confirmed by comparing profiles of the flux rope models to the in situ data, where the distorted flux rope cross-section qualitatively agrees most with in situ observations of the magnetic field at Solar Orbiter. Comparing in situ observations of the magnetic field between spacecraft, we find that the dependence of the maximum (mean) magnetic field strength decreases with heliocentric distance as
r
−1.24 ± 0.50
(
r
−1.12 ± 0.14
), which is in disagreement with previous studies. Further assessment of the axial and poloidal magnetic field strength dependencies suggests that the expansion of the CME is likely neither self-similar nor cylindrically symmetric.
The magnetometer instrument MPO-MAG on-board the Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) of the BepiColombo mission en-route to Mercury is introduced, with its instrument design, its calibration and ...scientific targets. The instrument is comprised of two tri-axial fluxgate magnetometers mounted on a 2.9 m boom and are 0.8 m apart. They monitor the magnetic field with up to 128 Hz in a
±
2048
nT range. The MPO will be injected into an initial
480
×
1500
km polar orbit (2.3 h orbital period). At Mercury, we will map the planetary magnetic field and determine the dynamo generated field and constrain the secular variation. In this paper, we also discuss the effect of the instrument calibration on the ability to improve the knowledge on the internal field. Furthermore, the study of induced magnetic fields and field-aligned currents will help to constrain the interior structure in concert with other geophysical instruments. The orbit is also well-suited to study dynamical phenomena at the Hermean magnetopause and magnetospheric cusps. Together with its sister instrument Mio-MGF on-board the second satellite of the BepiColombo mission, the magnetometers at Mercury will study the reaction of the highly dynamic magnetosphere to changes in the solar wind. In the extreme case, the solar wind might even collapse the entire dayside magnetosphere. During cruise, MPO-MAG will contribute to studies of solar wind turbulence and transient phenomena.
Collisionless shock nonstationarity arising from microscale physics influences shock structure and particle acceleration mechanisms. Nonstationarity has been difficult to quantify due to the small ...spatial and temporal scales. We use the closely spaced (subgyroscale), high-time-resolution measurements from one rapid crossing of Earth's quasiperpendicular bow shock by the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) spacecraft to compare competing nonstationarity processes. Using MMS's high-cadence kinetic plasma measurements, we show that the shock exhibits nonstationarity in the form of ripples.
Whistler mode chorus waves are receiving increased scientific attention due to their important roles in both acceleration and loss processes of radiation belt electrons. A new global survey of ...whistler‐mode chorus waves is performed using magnetic field filter bank data from the THEMIS spacecraft with 5 probes in near‐equatorial orbits. Our results confirm earlier analyses of the strong dependence of wave amplitudes on geomagnetic activity, confinement of nightside emissions to low magnetic latitudes, and extension of dayside emissions to high latitudes. An important new finding is the strong occurrence rate of chorus on the dayside at L > 7, where moderate dayside chorus is present >10% of the time and can persist even during periods of low geomagnetic activity.
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