Future Research Opportunities with Magnetospheric Multiscale: Results of the 2020 Heliophysics Senior Review

Abstract:

Since its launch in 2015, MMS has accumulated over 200TB of the highest resolution fields and particle data ever collected for the purpose of understanding the process of magnetic reconnection in the boundary regions of the Earth’s magnetosphere. Results from these first years have been reported in over 550 papers in the refereed literature. In the coming years, the MMS team plans a refreshed set of observational campaigns with emphasis on the dayside magnetospheric boundaries; the magnetotail plasma sheet boundaries, and phenomena of the dawn and dusk flanks. In the next 3 years, the spacecraft will explore the magnetopause at increasingly higher southern latitudes. This will culminate in 2023 with encounters of the southern magnetospheric cusp after which the apogee will return to the near the ecliptic plane in 2025. We plan to maintain the MMS spacecraft in its nominal tetrahedron configuration for the immediate future. After 2023, we plan to provide new science opportunities via a logarithmic string-of-pearls configuration with separations approximating a geometric series, e.g., 30 km, 650 km, 15,000 km in order to sample the electron, ion and MHD scales simultaneously, until later returning to the tetrahedron. Throughout the extended mission, fortuitous constellations will be abundant with other missions of the Heliophysics System Observatory. This, along with our very close integration with theory and modeling investigators, laboratory experiments, and ground-based observatories, offer many new opportunities for combined studies that will significantly enhance the science return for all involved.