High resolution mapping of cold ions within flux transfer events using Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) data

Ions of ionospheric origin have been shown to be ubiquitous at the dayside magnetopause [Chappell et al., 1987, Chandler and Moore, 2003, and Fuselier et al., 2016]. Ions originating from this location tend to have lower temperature than sheath or solar wind ions. The lower temperature leads to a smaller gyroradius; the smaller gyroradius has been shown to allow the ions to remain magnetized closer to the reconnection site [Toledo-Redondo et al., 2016 and Andre et al., 2016]. Flux transfer events, phenomena that are produced as a result of magnetic reconnection [Russell and Elphic, 1978], act as transport for solar wind and sheath plasma into the magnetosphere [Sibeck and Siscoe, 1984]. Comparative analysis of the FTEs with and without the presence of cold ions may reveal more about the process by which the FTE deposits plasma and energy from the solar wind into the magnetosphere. This study will be using data from the first two dayside phases of the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission, a number of events with cold (<100 eV) ions present with and persist throughout their interaction with a FTE located near the magnetopause in the equatorial plane. With high time resolution and full sky distributions from the Fast Plasma Investigation (FPI) instrument cold ions can be observed along with the characteristic FTE `D' shaped distribution throughout the event time period. Investigation into the presence of cold ions interacting with phenomena at the magnetopause may give a better view into the solar wind - magnetosphere interaction, and conditions for magnetic reconnection.