Abstract

The primary objective of the Magnetospheric Multiscale mission is to study the physics of magnetic reconnection in current sheets using plasma and field measurements of unprecedented resolution. A major obstacle to answering fundamental reconnection questions with MMS is being able to efficiently and quickly examine the basic properties of a large number of current sheets captured by MMS and identify events for further study. A new database of MMS current sheet observations, initially built by members of the team and hosted by ISSI, includes 8670 magnetopause and magnetosheath current sheet crossings. This database remains to be fully exploited, and so we propose an international team that will use this database to address some key unanswered questions concerning the structure and dynamics of magnetic reconnection and other processes in current sheets. The proposed studies require the examination of a large number of current sheet crossings by MMS, and will benefit from the existence of a large database of MMS current sheet observations. The initial data base will be expanded as part of the team’s activities. Some of the proposed studies will build on previous single-event studies and will establish the statistical properties of the processes and their dependence on a variety of boundary conditions, while others use the large data base to identify promising candidates for further analysis, or to select rare events of importance. The database will be expanded as part of the team’s activities, documented, and promoted to the community.