Cross-scale: multi-scale coupling in space plasmas

S. J. Schwartz , T. Horbury , C. Owen , W. Baumjohann , R. Nakamura , Patrick Canu (1) , A. Roux (1) , Fouad Sahraoui (1) , P. Louarn , J.-A. Sauvaud , Jean-Louis Pinçon (2) , A. Vaivads , M. F. Marcucci , A. Anastasiadis , M. Fujimoto , P. Escoubet , M. Taylor , S. Eckersley , E. Allouis , M.-C. Perkinson

1 LPP - Laboratoire de Physique des Plasmas
2 LPCE - Laboratoire de physique et chimie de l'environnement

Most of the visible universe is in the highly ionised plasma state, and most of that plasma is collision-free. Three physical phenomena are responsible for nearly all of the processes that accelerate particles, transport material and energy, and mediate flows in systems as diverse as radio galaxy jets and supernovae explosions through to solar flares and planetary magnetospheres. These processes in turn result from the coupling amongst phenomena at macroscopic fluid scales, smaller ion scales, and down to electron scales. Cross-Scale, in concert with its sister mission SCOPE (to be provided by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency—JAXA), is dedicated to quantifying that nonlinear, time-varying coupling via the simultaneous in-situ observations of space plasmas performed by a fleet of 12 spacecraft in near-Earth orbit. Cross-Scale has been selected for the Assessment Phase of Cosmic Vision by the European Space Agency.

Mots clés: Cross-scale; Cosmic Vision; Multi-scale coupling in plasmas; Space plasmas

Domaines: Astrophysique [astro-ph]; Physique des plasmas [physics.plasm-ph]

S. J. Schwartz, T. Horbury, C. Owen, W. Baumjohann, R. Nakamura, et al.. Cross-scale: multi-scale coupling in space plasmas. Experimental Astronomy, 2009, 23, pp.1001-1015. ⟨10.1007/s10686-008-9085-x⟩. ⟨hal-01553803⟩