The main goal of this team is to identify the different ion and electron acceleration mechanisms at/around fronts and to establish which the most efficient ones are. Plasma jets and associated particle acceleration are very important in many astrophysical environments but can be studied in detail only in the magnetosphere, where high resolution measurements of particle distribution functions and electromagnetic fields are available in situ. To achieve the proposed goal, we will combine multi-spacecraft ESA/Cluster and NASA/Themis in situ observations with models and numerical simulations (MHD, kinetic). We plan to have two meetings: the first in fall 2012 and the second in spring 2013. The outcome of the team activity is expected to be at least three publications: (1) one observational paper using Cluster and/or Themis data, (2) one paper on the comparison between observations and simulations, (3) one review paper summarizing our understanding of jet front acceleration mechanisms in the Earth’s magnetosphere and discussing the applicability of such mechanisms to other planetary magnetospheres and possibly remote plasma environments.

Click to view the PDF proposal