Feb 26, 2008

THEMIS Accomplishes Major Mission Milestone. The minimum number of substorms to satisfy the prime mission science has been collected by the THEMIS probes. As of the end of February, THEMIS has observed 154 hours of four-probe conjunctions (requirement was 94 hrs), during which it observed 57 substorms.

Of those, about 6-10 were observed from an excellent vantage point during the period of Feb 02-Feb 26. Major findings will be presented at the International Conference on Substorms in Graz, Austria and at the Fall AGU meeting in San Francisco. Preliminary results will be presented at the Spring AGU meeting in Fort Lauderdale. So far, the magnetotail looks far more interesting than ever before.