Two‐Dimensional Velocity of the Magnetic Structure Observed on July 11, 2017 by the Magnetospheric Multiscale Spacecraft

In order to determine particle velocities and electric field in the frame of the magnetic structure, one first needs to determine the velocity of the magnetic structure in the frame of the spacecraft observations. Here, we demonstrate two methods to determine a two‐dimensional magnetic structure velocity for the magnetic reconnection event observed in the magnetotail by the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) spacecraft on July 11, 2017, Spatio‐Temporal Difference (STD) and the recently developed polynomial reconstruction method. Both of these methods use the magnetic field measurements; the reconstruction technique also uses the current density measured by the particle instrument. We find rough agreement between the results of our methods and with other velocity determinations previously published. We also explain a number of features of STD and show that the polynomial reconstruction technique is most likely to be valid within a distance of 2 spacecraft spacings from the centroid of the MMS spacecraft. Both of these methods are susceptible to contamination by magnetometer calibration errors. Key Points We demonstrate use of Spatio‐Temporal Difference (STD) and polynomial reconstruction to determine the 2‐D velocity of a magnetic structure Velocities from STD and reconstruction roughly agree with each other and with estimates from other references for the July 11, 2017 event Polynomial reconstruction is most likely to be accurate within a distance of 2 spacecraft spacings from the centroid of the Magnetospheric Multiscale spacecraft