Space Plasma Physics
The Space Plasma Physics group at MSSL is a leading, internationally recognised research group studying the physical interaction between the Earth and the Sun and the fundamental physics of space plasmas. The group has a history of producing instrumentation for, and analysing data from, international space exploration missions in collaboration with scientists around the world.
The group is heavily involved in the current Cluster mission and the proposed Solar Orbiter mission. Much of our research involves exploiting data from the Cluster mission, in conjunction with other missions and facilities. We also provide operational support and data processing for the Cluster and Double Star missions and the Cluster Active Archive. We have a number of PhD opportunities for students to study some of the many aspects of space plasmas.
Details of our mission involvement, research and upcoming projects can all be found on this site.
MSSL Space Plasma News
Mars Landers at Rockwood School
Dr. Colin Forsyth visited Rockwood School in Andover to talk to their Year 5 and Year 6 pupils about sending landers to Mars. The pupils learned what it takes to get to Mars and then had the opportunity to build and test their own Mars landers. More...
PEACE Team Meeting 2012
MSSL will host the PEACE Team Meeting from 6th to 8th March 2012. The meeting is open to all PEACE CoIs. Information about the meeting and registration can be found at More...
10th Solar Orbiter SWA Team meeting held in Toulouse, 5-7 March 2012
Members of MSSL's PI team for the Solar Orbiter SWA investigation went to Toulouse to meet with consortium colleagues from France, Italy and the USA at the 10th SWA team meeting. Latest developments of the SWA hardware were reviewed, together with the status of the consortium as it heads towards ESA's formal 'Preliminary Design Review' which will occur in mid-May 2012. Chris Owen (SWA Principal Investigator), Chris Brockley-Blatt (SWA Project manager), Barry hancock (SWA Systems Engineer) and Dhiren Kataria (SWA Instrument Scientist) represented MSSL at the meeting. More...
MSSL Space Plasma Science Nuggets
Structure and variability of the auroral acceleration region
Bright auroral arc appear when charged particles from the magnetosphere are accelerated into the upper atmosphere. Collisions between charged particles and neutrals excite the electrons in the neutral particles which then de-excite by emitting auroral light. Particles, in particular electrons, are accelerated out of the magnetosphere and into the atmosphere by magnetic-field-aligned electric potential drops in a region known as the auroral acceleration region (AAR). In a recent paper, Forsyth et al. [2012] investigated the temporal variability and spatial structure in one such region. More...
What is the source of magnetotail flux-ropes?
Travelling compression regions (TCRs) are perturbations in the magnetotail lobe magnetic field caused by structures moving Earthward or tailward within the plasma sheet. Previous works have suggested that these structures are created by either time-dependant reconnection occurring at a single X-line, forming a flux-bulge-type structure, or space-variant reconnection at multiple X-lines, forming flux-rope-type structures. By analysing a TCR and its source structure using the Cluster spacecraft, Beyene et al. (2011) have endeavoured to determine which of these mechanisms creates TCRs. More...
Particle Distributions in the Magnetotail
For the first time, Walsh et al. have examined, in detail, the particle distributions in the magnetotail to determine the average pitch angle distributions. More...
Calculating currents from four spacecraft
Ampere's law tells us that the curl of a magnetic field is proportional to current density. In order to measure the curl of a magnetic field in space, one needs to know approximate the variation of the magnetic field between four non-coplanar points. Such measurements are achieved by the Cluster quartet. More...
Discovery of the 'Travelling Magnetopause Erosion Region'
Recent work by Owen et al. has shed new light on the structure of the magnetopause following bursts of reconnection through the discovery of 'Travelling Magnetopause Erosion Regions'. More...
Page last modified on 16 aug 11 12:20
