Prioritization for Downlink of Scientific Observations for the Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission Using Trigger Parameters from the Fast Plasma Instrumentation

The Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission (MMS) acquires measurements of charged particles and electric and magnetic fields from 4 spacecraft observatories for the purpose of understanding magnetic reconnection. High temporal resolution measurements from the instrument suite are required for resolving physical processes within the electron and ion reconnection diffusion regions, which are small and typically moving at high speed with respect to the spacecraft. Telemetry is limited, though, and ultimately just a small fraction of the high-rate data can be transmitted to the ground. For that reason, it is necessary to prioritize observations for storage on the spacecraft and subsequent downlink based on limited information. To facilitate selection of measurements, the Fast Plasma Instrumentation (FPI) produces a set of trigger parameters that partially characterize the measurements and are sufficiently compact that they can be sent to the ground at full temporal resolution. In this presentation, we report on the use of these data and complementary data from other instruments for selection of intervals with high potential for addressing the scientific objectives of the mission.