The Themis Mission

by Burch, J. L.; Angelopoulos, V.

• ISBN13: 9780387898193
• ISBN10: 0387898190
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-04-30
• Publisher: Springer Verlag

Summary

The THEMIS mission aims to determine the trigger and large-scale evolution of substorms by employing five identical micro-satellites which line up along the Earth's magnetotail to track the motion of particles, plasma, and waves from one point to another and for the first time, resolve space'time ambiguities in key regions of the magnetosphere on a global scale. The primary goal of THEMIS is to elucidate which magnetotail process is responsible for substorm onset at the region where substorm auroras map: (i) local disruption of the plasma sheet current (current disruption) or (ii) the interaction of the current sheet with the rapid influx of plasma emanating from reconnection. The probes also traverse the radiation belts and the dayside magnetosphere, allowing THEMIS to address additional baseline objectives. This volume describes the mission, the instrumentation, and the data derived from them.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. 1
The THEMIS Mission	p. 5
THEMIS Science Objectives and Mission Phases	p. 35
Orbit Design for the THEMIS Mission	p. 61
THEMIS Operations	p. 91
The THEMIS Constellation	p. 117
Instrument Data Processing Unit for THEMIS	p. 153
The THEMIS Magnetic Cleanliness Program	p. 171
Instrument Boom Mechanisms on the THEMIS Satellites; Magnetometer, Radial Wire, and Axial Booms	p. 185
THEMIS Ground Based Observatory System Design	p. 213
The THEMIS Fluxgate Magnetometer	p. 235
The Search Coil Magnetometer for THEMIS	p. 265
The THEMIS ESA Plasma Instrument and In-flight Calibration	p. 277
The Electric Field Instrument (EFI) for THEMIS	p. 303
The THEMIS Digital Fields Board	p. 343
The THEMIS Array of Ground-based Observatories for the Study of Auroral Substorms	p. 357
THEMIS Ground-Based Magnetometers	p. 389
The Upgraded CARISMA Magnetometer Array in the THEMIS Era	p. 413
First Results from the THEMIS Mission	p. 453
THEMIS ESA First Science Results and Performance Issues	p. 477
First Results of the THEMIS Search Coil Magnetometers	p. 509
OpenGGCM Simulations for the THEMIS Mission	p. 535
The Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms (THEMIS) Education and Outreach (E/PO) Program	p. 557
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