Recovering Ion Distribution Functions: I. Slepian Reconstruction of VDFs from MMS and Solar Orbiter

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel Slepian function-based algorithm for reconstructing ion velocity distribution functions from spacecraft data, offering improved accuracy and efficiency over traditional methods, with potential applications in future space missions.

Contribution

The paper presents a new Slepian function-based algorithm for decomposing ion VDFs, demonstrating its advantages over spherical harmonics in preserving phase space complexities.

Findings

Slepian functions outperform spherical harmonics in reconstructing complex VDFs.

The method effectively captures gyrotropic and agyrotropic distributions.

Algorithm is robust across different spacecraft measurements.

Abstract

Plasma velocity distribution functions (VDFs) constitute a fundamental observation of numerous operational and future missions. An efficient parameterization of VDFs is crucial for (1) preserving enough information to investigate macroscopic moments along with kinetic effects, (2) producing smooth distributions whereby it is possible to perform derivatives in phase space to support numerical solvers, and (3) economic data management and its storage. Previous studies have used spherical harmonics as an efficient basis for representing electron VDFs. In this paper, we present a novel algorithm targeted towards decomposing ion VDFs measured by electrostatic analyzers onboard Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission (MMS) and Solar Orbiter (SolO) spacecrafts. We use Slepian functions, custom-designed bases providing compact support in phase space, initially developed in information theory and later used for terrestrial and planetary applications. In this paper, we choose well-studied, well-measured, and complex intervals from MMS and SolO containing a range of simpler gyrotropic and agyrotropic distributions to benchmark the robustness of our reconstruction method. We demonstrate the advantages of using Slepian functions over spherical harmonics for solar wind plasma distributions. We also demonstrate that our choice of basis representation efficiently preserves phase space complexities of a 3D agyrotropic distribution function. This algorithm shown in this study will be extended to Parker Solar Probe and future missions such as Helioswarm.