Institution: | 1. Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College London, London, SW7 2AZ, UK 2. MSSL, UCL, Holmbury St. Mary, UK 3. Space Research Institute, Graz, Austria 4. CETP, Vélizy-Villacoublay, France 5. CESR, Toulouse, France 6. LPCE, Orléans, France 7. Swedish Institute of Space Physics, Uppsala, Sweden 8. IFSI, Rome, Italy 9. National Observatory of Athens, Institute for Space Applications & Remote Sensing, Athens, Greece 10. ISAS, Kanagawa, Japan 11. ESTEC, Noordwijk, The Netherlands 12. EADS Astrium UK Ltd., Stevenage, UK
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Abstract: | Most of the visible universe is in the highly ionised plasma state, and most of that plasma is collision-free. Three physical
phenomena are responsible for nearly all of the processes that accelerate particles, transport material and energy, and mediate
flows in systems as diverse as radio galaxy jets and supernovae explosions through to solar flares and planetary magnetospheres.
These processes in turn result from the coupling amongst phenomena at macroscopic fluid scales, smaller ion scales, and down
to electron scales. Cross-Scale, in concert with its sister mission SCOPE (to be provided by the Japan Aerospace Exploration
Agency—JAXA), is dedicated to quantifying that nonlinear, time-varying coupling via the simultaneous in-situ observations
of space plasmas performed by a fleet of 12 spacecraft in near-Earth orbit. Cross-Scale has been selected for the Assessment
Phase of Cosmic Vision by the European Space Agency.
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