About MMS

Specifically, and in priority order, MMS addresses three main objectives:

Determine the role played by electron inertia and turbulent dissipation in driving magnetic reconnection in the electron diffusion region
Determine the rate of magnetic reconnection and the parameters that control it.
Determine the role played by ion inertial effects and turbulence in the physics of magnetic reconnection.

Senior Review 2020, extended these objectives to include:

Investigate magnetic reconnection in all near-Earth environments,
Determine the processes which heat plasma populations and accelerate particles to large energies,
Study the way turbulent processes interact on kinetic scales, and
Investigate the microphysics of collisionless shocks.

Senior Review 2023, includes:

Understand how reconnection works in the boundary regions of Geospace for a wide range of plasma conditions
Understand the processes that heat plasma populations and accelerate particles to large energies, especially their relationship to magnetic reconnection.
Determine the nature of kinetic-scale turbulence and its role in reconnection and particle acceleration
Investigate the kinetic physics of collisionless shocks for a wide range of Mach number