High time resolution measurements in the magnetosphere

Summary form only given. The physics of the magnetosphere are characterized by the formation of thin boundaries. It is within these narrow regions that energy conversion and particle acceleration processes occur. These processes are often controlled by nonlinear microphysics occurring on time scales as fast as a few microseconds. To understand these phenomena it is necessary to measure the plasma distributions and time-domain electric and magnetic fields with appropriately high time resolution. Satellites have recently measured such phenomena as the dissipation mechanisms in the collisionless bow shock; large, spiky fields in the plasma sheet boundary layer; and the double layers which accelerate particles in the auroral zone