ONE OF THE PENDING PROBLEMS IN COLLISIONLESS PLASMAS IS TO UNDERSTAND THE PLASMA HEATING AND TRANSPORT ACROSS THREE FUNDAMENTAL SCALES: FLUID ION AND ELECTRON. THE PLASMA INSIDE EARTH S MAGNETOTAIL PLASMA SHEET IS ~50 TIMES HOTTER THAN IN THE MAGNETOSHEATH. FURTHERMORE THE SPECIFIC ENTROPY INCREASES BY TWO ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE FROM THE MAGNETOSHEATH TO THE MAGNETOSPHERE WHICH IS A SIGNATURE OF A STRONG NON-ADIABATIC HEATING. ALSO THE COLD COMPONENT IONS ARE HOTTER BY ~30 % AT THE DAWNSIDE COMPARED TO THOSE MEASURED ON THE DUSKSIDE. OUR RECENT STATISTICAL STUDY USING THEMIS DATA INDICATES THAT THE MAGNETOSHEATH SEED POPULATION IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS ASYMMETRY SO ADDITIONAL PHYSICAL MECHANISMS AT THE MAGNETOPAUSE OR PLASMA SHEET MUST BE AT WORK TO EXPLAIN THIS ASYMMETRIC HEATING. RECENT WORKS SUGGEST THAT DAWN-FLANK MAGNETOPAUSE BOUNDARY IS MORE PRONE TO THE FLUID-SCALE KELVIN- HELMHOLTZ INSTABILITY (KHI) AS WELL AS TO THE ION-SCALE ELECTROMAGNETIC WAVE ACTIVITY WHICH MAY HELP EXPLAIN THE OBSERVED PLASMA SHEET ASYMMETRY. SCIENCE GOALS AND OBJECTIVES: THE OBJECTIVE OF THIS PROPOSAL IS TO EXAMINE THE ROLE OF CROSS-SCALE WAVE COUPLING PROCESSES FROM FLUID TO ION SCALES WITHIN KELVIN- HELMHOLTZ (KH) VORTICES IN THE MAGNETOPAUSE BOUNDARY LAYER. WE PLAN TO ADDRESS THE FOLLOWING SCIENCE QUESTIONS: 1. WHAT ARE THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SMALL-SCALE WAVES OBSERVED IN KH VORTICES? 2. WHAT IS THE ORIGIN OF THE WAVES AND HOW DO THEY RELATE TO LARGE-SCALE VELOCITY DRIVEN MODES? 3. WHAT IS THEIR ROLE OF MIXING DIFFUSION AND HEATING OF IONS? METHODOLOGY: THE INVESTIGATION WILL INVOLVE EXTENSIVE THEORY AND SIMULATION ELEMENTS AS WELL AS THOROUGH ANALYSIS AND COMPARISON MAINLY WITH THEMIS AND CLUSTER SPACECRAFT DATA. WE WILL UTILIZE BOTH PRE-IDENTIFIED KH EVENTS AS WELL AS NEW EVENTS WITH 80-1500 KM SPACECRAFT SEPARATION CAPTURING THE TRANSITION FROM FLUID TO ION-SCALES. WE WILL ANALYZE THE WAVE SPECTRA TO DETERMINE THE WAVE MODES BASED ON THE DISPERSION RELATION USING A 2-SPACECRAFT TECHNIQUE E/B RATIO AND WAVE POLARIZATION. WE WILL PERFORM MULTISPECTRAL NONLINEAR ANALYSIS TO DETERMINE HOW THE WAVES ARE COUPLED TO THE KH STRUCTURES. BASED ON THE RESULTS OF MULTI-SPACECRAFT ANALYSIS WE WILL ALSO IDENTIFY SINGLE SPACECRAFT SIGNATURES SO THAT WE CAN ANALYZE EVENTS FROM A LARGE STATISTICAL DATABASE OF THEMIS KH OBSERVATIONS. THESE OBSERVATIONS WILL BE COMPARED WITH THEORY AND LOCAL HALL-MHD AND 3D HYBRID SIMULATIONS OF KHI THAT CAN DESCRIBE COUPLING TO KINETIC-SCALE WAVES SUCH AS KINETIC ALFVEN AND MAGNETOSONIC-WHISTLER WAVES. THEORY WILL BE USED TO EXAMINE STABILITY WAVE TRAPPING AND TRANSPORT. THE HYBRID CODE WILL BE USED TO EXAMINE NONLINEAR DEVELOPMENT TRANSPORT AND ION HEATING WITHIN THE KH VORTICES AS WELL AS THE GENERATION OF THE KINETIC PLASMA WAVE MODES WITHIN KH VORTEX STRUCTURES. ION DISTRIBUTION FUNCTIONS ARE EXAMINED IN THE SIMULATION AND IN THE DATA DURING ION-SCALE WAVE OBSERVATIONS AND IN THE VICINITY OF THE RECONNECTION REGIONS SO THAT THAT SOURCES OF FREE ENERGY FOR THE WAVE GENERATION ARE BETTER UNDERSTOOD. RELEVANCE TO NASA: THIS PROPOSAL BELONGS TO THE MAGNETOSPHERIC CATEGORY SCIENCE AREA 8: SOLAR WIND MAGNETOSPHERE COUPLING. PROPOSED STUDY HAS DIRECT RELEVANCE TO THE FOLLOWING DECADAL SURVEY GOALS: GOAL 2 ``DETERMINE THE DYNAMICS AND COUPLING OF EARTH'S MAGNETOSPHERE IONOSPHERE AND ATMOSPHERE AND THEIR RESPONSE TO SOLAR AND TERRESTRIAL INPUTS.'' THE PROPOSED STUDY IS DIRECTLY RELATED TO THE INTERACTION OF THE SOLAR WIND WITH EARTH'S MAGNETOSPHERE INVESTIGATING TRANSPORT PROCESSES AT THE MAGNETOPAUSE BOUNDARY. GOAL 4 ``DISCOVER AND CHARACTERIZE FUNDAMENTAL PROCESSES THAT OCCUR BOTH WITHIN THE HELIOSPHERE AND THROUGHOUT THE UNIVERSE.'' VELOCITY SHEARS ARE UBIQUITOUS THROUGHOUT THE HELIOSPHERE AND THE UNIVERSE AND PROVIDE AN INPUT OF ENERGY THAT CAN CASCADE TO SMALL SCALES WHERE NONADIABATIC PROCESSES SUCH AS HEATING AND TRANSPORT OCCUR.