SM036-04
Observations of Low-Energy Magnetospheric Ions by the TRICE 2 Sounding Rocket and the Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission

Monday, 14 December 2020: 19:12
Virtual
Rhyan Sawyer1,2, Stephen A Fuselier1,2, Craig Kletzing3, Scott R Bounds3, John W Bonnell4, Roger Roglans4, Myeong Joon Kim1,2, Sarah K. Vines5, Iver Cairns6, James W Labelle7, Chrystal Moser7, Joran Idar Moen8, Karlheinz J Trattner9, Petrinec M Steven10, James Burch2, Barbara L Giles11 and Don E George1,2, (1)University of Texas at San Antonio, Physics and Astronomy, San Antonio, TX, United States, (2)Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, TX, United States, (3)University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, United States, (4)University of California, Berkeley, Space Sciences Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, United States, (5)Applied Physics Laboratory Johns Hopkins, Laurel, MD, United States, (6)University of Sydney, School of Physics, Sydney, NSW, Australia, (7)Dartmouth College, Department of Physics & Astronomy, Hanover, NH, United States, (8)University of Oslo, Physics Department, Oslo, Norway, (9)Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, Boulder, CO, United States, (10)Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center, Palo Alto, CA, United States, (11)NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States
Recorded Presentation
Abstract:
The Earth’s magnetospheric cusps provide the most direct access for solar wind ions to lower altitudes. Magnetic reconnection processes create a pathway (open field lines) for accelerated solar wind ions to stream into the magnetosphere and precipitate in the cusp. Low-energy ions may also fill closed magnetospheric flux tubes that subsequently are opened through reconnection. These low-energy magnetospheric ions mirror at high altitudes. Previous studies suggest that Broadband Extremely Low Frequency (BBELF) waves are present within the cusp. Resonant interactions between the low-energy ions filling the open flux tube and BBELF waves may result in pitch angle scattering of the low-energy ions all along the open flux tube. This interaction may sufficiently lower the mirror point to sounding rocket altitudes. We present ion and wave observations of the cusp and magnetopause from the 2018 conjunction of the Twin Rocket Investigation of Cusp Electrodynamics 2 (TRICE 2) sounding rocket mission and Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) spacecraft. This study presents evidence of low-energy magnetospheric ions at high latitudes mirroring in the cusp and hints at a BBELF wave-particle interaction mechanism that lowers the mirror point to rocket altitudes.
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