Is Magnetic Reconnection Dominantly Spatially or Temporally Variable: First Results From TRACERS
S. A. Fuselier, C. A. Kletzing, D. M. Miles, S. R. Bounds, J. B. Bonnell, I. H. Cairns, H. Cao, J. D. Furman, R. G. Gomez, K. Goodrich, J. S. Halekas, G. Hospodarsky, Y. Lin, J. LaBelle, K. LLera, J. Mukherjee, M. Øieroset, S. M. Petrinec, R. Roglans, O. Santolik, R. Strangeway, K. J. Trattner, S. K. VinesAbstract
The Tandem Reconnection And Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites (TRACERS) small explorer mission was designed to: Determine whether magnetopause reconnection is primarily spatially or temporally variable for a range of solar wind conditions . Observations from the Analyzers for Cusp Ions (ACIs) on the two TRACERS spacecrafts are used to make this determination. Tandem cusp encounters from November 2025 through February 2026 are used to distinguish cusp ion structures resulting from spatial variability of magnetopause reconnection from those resulting from temporal variability. Preliminary results indicate that magnetopause reconnection is dominantly spatially variable for all interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) orientations and all solar wind dynamic pressures. Spatial variability dominates by at least a factor of 2 for all solar wind conditions. However, almost all encounters categorized as “spatial” display some temporal variability embedded in the larger spatial variability. More tandem cusp encounters are needed to verify these preliminary results and to complete the other science objectives of the mission.