Soft X-ray and ENA Imaging of the Earth's Dayside Magnetosphere

The Lunar Environment Heliophysics X-ray Imager (LEXI) Mission

The Lunar Environment heliospheric X-ray Imager (LEXI) is a wide field-of-view soft X-ray telescope developed to study solar wind-magnetosphere coupling. LEXI is part of the Blue Ghost 1 mission comprised of 10 payloads to be deployed on the lunar surface. LEXI monitors the dayside magnetopause position and shape as a function of time by observing soft X-rays (0.1-2 keV) emitted from solar wind charge-exchange between exospheric neutrals and high charge-state solar wind plasma in the dayside magnetosheath. Measurements of the shape and position of the magnetopause are used to test temporal models of meso- and macro-scale magnetic reconnection. To image the boundary, LEXI employs lobster-eye optics to focus X-rays to a microchannel plate detector with a 9.1× ∘ 9.1 ∘ field of view.

The cusp plasma imaging detector (CuPID) cubesat observatory: Instrumentation

The Cusp Plasma Imaging Detector (CuPID) CubeSat observatory is a 6U CubeSat designed to observe solar wind charge exchange in magnetospheric cusps to test competing theories of magnetic reconnection at the Earth's magnetopause. The CuPID is equipped with three instruments, namely, a wide field-of-view (4.6° × 4.6°) soft x-ray telescope, a micro-dosimeter suite, and an engineering magnetometer optimized for the science operation. The instrument suite has been tested and calibrated in relevant environments, demonstrating successful design. The testing and calibration of these instruments produced metrics and coefficients that will be used to create the CuPID mission's data product.

Explicit IMF B y -Dependence of Energetic Protons and the Ring Current

The most important parameter driving the solar wind-magnetosphere interaction is the southward (B _z ) component of the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF). While the dawn-dusk (B _y ) component of the IMF is also known to play an important role, its effects are usually assumed to be independent of its sign. Here we demonstrate for the first time a seasonally varying, explicit IMF B _y -dependence of the ring current and Dst index. Using satellite observations and a global magnetohydrodynamic model coupled with a ring current model, we show that for a fixed level of solar wind driving the flux of energetic magnetospheric protons and the growth-rate of the ring current are greater for B _y  < 0 (B _y  > 0) than for B _y  > 0 (B _y  < 0) in Northern Hemisphere summer (winter). While the physical mechanism of this explicit B _y -effect is not yet fully understood, our results suggest that IMF B _y modulates magnetospheric convection and plasma transport in the inner magnetosphere.