The illustration reveals electromagnetic field lines around the Earth reconnecting in the magnetotail, usually among the first signs of a substorm. An internally funded Southwest Research Institute project is examining the nature of substorms, particularly a 2017 occasion when reconnection appeared to happen without inciting a substorm. Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center-Conceptual Image LabUsing NASAs MMS objective information, SwRI checks out uncommon substorm events in Earths magnetotail to much better understand magnetic reconnection and its results on the global magnetosphere.Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) is examining an unusual event in the Earths magnetotail, the extended extension of the worlds magnetosphere trailing away from the Sun. SwRI researchers are taking a look at the nature of substorms, short lived disruptions in the magnetotail that release energy and typically trigger aurorae, using information from NASAs Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission.Since their launch in 2015, the MMS spacecraft have actually been surveying the magnetopause, the boundary between the magnetosphere and surrounding plasma, for indications of magnetic reconnection, which occurs when electromagnetic field lines converge, disintegrate, and reconnect, explosively transforming magnetic energy into heat and kinetic energy. In 2017, MMS observed indications of magnetic reconnection in the magnetotail however not the normal indications of a substorm that accompany reconnection, such as strong electrical currents and perturbations in the magnetic field.Illustration of the four MMS spacecraft in orbit in Earths electromagnetic field. Credit: NASAUnderstanding Substorms and Reconnection”We desire to see how the local physics observed by MMS impacts the whole international magnetosphere,” stated SwRIs Dr. Andy Marshall, a postdoctoral researcher. “By comparing that event to more normal substorms, we are striving to enhance our understanding of what triggers a substorm and the relationship between substorms and reconnection.”During the one-year task, SwRI will compare in situ MMS measurements of reconnection affecting local fields and particles to global magnetosphere reconstructions developed by the Community Coordinated Modeling Center at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center utilizing the University of Michigans Space Weather Modeling Framework.Implications for Magnetosphere Research”Its possible that significant differences exist between the worldwide magnetotail convection patterns for substorms and non-substorm tail reconnection,” Marshall said. “We have actually not taken a look at the movement of the electromagnetic field lines on a global scale, so it could be that this uncommon substorm was an extremely localized event that MMS happened to observe. If not, it could improve our understanding of the relationship between tail-side reconnection and substorms.”MMS is the fourth NASA Solar Terrestrial Probes Program mission. Goddard Space Flight Center developed, integrated, and checked the four MMS spacecraft and is responsible for total objective management and objective operations. The primary investigator for the MMS instrument suite science group is based at SwRI in San Antonio. Science operations preparing and instrument commanding are performed at the MMS Science Operations Center at the University of Colorados Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics in Boulder.
