Standing Toroidal Alfvén Wave Evolution: First Results from MMS
Abstract
Within the first few weeks after launch (on March 13, 2015), the Magnetospheric MultiScale (MMS) spacecraft observed persistent toroidal Alfvén wave activity in the dawn flank inner magnetosphere, close to the dawn terminator. During that time, the spacecraft were flying in a so-called string-of-pearls configuration, with inter-spacecraft distances in the range of 100 to 1000km. In that configuration, the spacecraft traversed phase shift regions that are characteristic of localized standing Alfvén waves. These waves may originate from field-line resonances. The particular configuration of the MMS spacecraft allows us to study, for the first time, the evolution of that phase shift from in-situ measurements.
- Publication:
-
EGU General Assembly Conference Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- April 2016
- Bibcode:
- 2016EGUGA..18.6852P