Magnetospheric Multiscale mission

Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission

The MMS spacecraft being prepared for launch. Image: NASA

NASA launched the Magnetospheric MultiScale, or MMS, mission on March 12, 2015. MMS consists of four identical spacecraft that orbit around Earth through the dynamic magnetic system surrounding our planet to study a fundamental plasma phenomenon called magnetic reconnection.

The spacecraft carries an extensive suite of instruments measuring electric and magnetic fields and plasma at unprecedented time resolution. A total of eight sensor divided in four sets of Dual Electron Spectrometer (DES) gives a full 3D field-of-view electron distribution in only 30 ms.

MMS instrument suite. Image: Burch et al. (2016)

Get the data!

The MMS data is publically accessible at the MMS Science Data Center (SDC). Comprehensive analysis packages are available in Matlab (irfu-matlab) and Python (SPEDAS, Space Physics Environment Data Analysis Software).

Related publications lead by team members