Bursty Bulk Flow Turbulence as Observed by the Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission
Résumé
Bursty Bulk Flows (BBFs), thought to result from reconnection in the near Earth plasma sheet, transfer a significant amount of mass and energy to the inner magnetosphere. The BBF braking region occurs at roughly 10 RE as the flow encounters the dipolar field near Earth and must slow significantly and/or deflect. Previous studies using the THEMIS spacecraft observed electron phase space holes and double-layers in the BBF braking region and speculated that strong field-aligned currents generated by turbulence within the region created these structures. While evidence supporting the existence of turbulence within the region was found, the lack of small-scale spatial information from THEMIS made it difficult to characterize the turbulence and currents within the region. In the present study, BBF braking region observations from the recently launched Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission are examined. Characteristics of the turbulence are examined through statistical methods such as spatial and temporal correlation functions. Individual structures within the turbulence will also be examined using multi-spacecraft techniques to better characterize the currents, which may contribute to the formation of kinetic structures and dissipation of turbulent energy.