Magnetic reconnection is a fundamental plasma process that converts energy stored in the electromagnetic fields into kinetic energy of particles in an explosive manner. It has been observed to operate in a variety of environments: from the Sun Atmosphere to planetary magnetospheres, in the solar wind, or inside tokamak devices, to name a few.

One of the best environments to study the fundamentals of how reconnection proceeds are solar system plasmas, due to their accessibility by in-situ spacecraft missions. The recent launch of Parker Solar Probe (NASA) and Solar Orbiter (ESA) have enabled to resolve ion scales with unprecedented detail at various heliocentric distances in the solar wind.

The Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission (NASA), launched in 2015, is specifically targeted to advance our knowledge of magnetic reconnection. This project will make use of all these missions to study and compare how reconnection works in different regimes and under different conditions.

Energy Dissipation by Solar Wind

How energy is dissipated by solar wind across the Heliosphere remains one major unsolved problem. The solar wind does not follow adiabatic expansion, it is hotter than expected as it evolves in the solar system.

We hypothesize that the interplay between the turbulent cascade energy transfer and magnetic reconnection may account for the solar wind heating. We will study how often ion scale current sheets reconnect in the solar wind, and quantify their relative role in heating the plasma.

Implications of Magnetic Reconnection

Another remarkable role of magnetic reconnection is regulating the coupling between the solar wind and planetary magnetospheres. It has implications for atmosphere evolution at geophysical time scales, drives geomagnetic storms responsible for space weather events, feeds the radiation belts with energetic particles (MeV), and powers the aurora, to name a few effects.

The solar wind conditions regulate the coupling to a great extent, but the forcing coming from the planet plasma source, i.e., the ionosphere, is also relevant. We will take advantage of the MMS dataset to study how ionospheric forcing affects the coupling to the solar wind as the solar cycle evolves.

Impact and Dissemination

The results of this project are of high interest for multiple branches of research, including fundamental plasma physics, Astrophysics (for instance, exoplanet atmosphere evolution, neutron star magnetospheres and pulsars), as well as more applied sciences such as Space Weather or Nuclear Fusion devices. Finally, the project includes a work package for dissemination and outreach, where we will present our results to broad audiences.

We believe that reaching to large sectors of the society is very important for leveraging scientific research.