1. GOALS AND/OR OBJECTIVES AT THE ROOT OF THIS PROPOSAL IS THE QUESTION OF HOW MOMENTUM AND ENERGY ARE TRANSPORTED AT KINETIC SCALES (~<ION GYRO RADIUS) BETWEEN MAGNETICALLY COUPLED SPACE PLASMAS. SOME OF THE MOST COMPELLING PHYSICS OCCURS AT ION KINETIC SCALES (E.G. MAGNETOSPHERIC BOUNDARIES) AND EVEN AT ELECTRON INERTIAL SCALES (E.G. BROADBAND AURORA RECONNECTION). IN MANY INSTANCES LARGE-SCALE PERTURBATIONS CAN UNDERGO A TURBULENT CASCADE TO KINETIC SCALES DISSIPATING ENERGY AND PRODUCING NON-ADIABATICALLY HEATED PLASMA (E.G. RADIAL TRANSPORT IN PLANETARY MAGNETOSPHERES). THUS IN-DEPTH KNOWLEDGE OF SUCH PROCESSES HAS BROAD APPLICABILITY IN SPACE PLASMA PHYSICS. THIS PROPOSAL SEEKS TO GENERATE KINETIC-SCALE PLASMA WAVES (E.G. LOW FREQUENCY KINETIC/INERTIAL ALFVEN RIGHT-HAND WHISTLER LEFT-HAND ION CYCLOTRON AND HIGHER FREQUENCY LOWER HYBRID WAVES ETC.) USING AN ACTIVE PLASMA INJECTION IN THE EARTH'S IONOSPHERE (THERMITE BARIUM RELEASE) AS A KNOWN SOURCE OF ENERGY AND MOMENTUM. SPECIFICALLY THIS PROPOSED EXPERIMENT WILL ADDRESS THE FOLLOWING COMPELLING SCIENCE QUESTIONS: - HOW IS MOMENTUM TRANSFER AFFECTED BY KINETIC-SCALE PHYSICS (E.G. FORMATION OF PARALLEL ELECTRIC FIELDS AND DISSIPATION)? - HOW IS ELECTROMAGNETIC ENERGY CONVERTED INTO PLASMA KINETIC AND THERMAL ENERGY? - WHAT IS THE INTERPLAY (I.E. CROSS-SCALE COUPLING) BETWEEN FLUID- AND KINETIC-SCALE PROCESSES? 2. METHODOLOGY TO ADDRESS OUR SCIENCE QUESTIONS WE PROPOSE TO MAKE PLASMA MEASUREMENTS ADJACENT TO AND WITHIN THE ALFVEN WING OF AN INJECTED THERMITE BARIUM RELEASE. WE WILL LAUNCH A SINGLE ROCKET FROM WALLOPS ISLAND VIRGINIA WITH TWO BARIUM THERMITE CANISTERS TO BE DETONATED 90 S APART AT AN ALTITUDE OF ABOUT 350 KM. A PLASMA DIAGNOSTIC ARRAY WILL INCLUDE 4 FREE-FLYING INSTRUMENTS (THERMAL PLASMA PROPERTIES) AND WILL BE POSITIONED ABOVE THE RELEASE BUT NEAR THE EDGE THE MAGNETIC FLUX TUBE SUBTENDED BY THE RELEASE CLOUD. THE INTER-INSTRUMENT SEPARATION WILL BE COMPARABLE TO THE PERPENDICULAR GRADIENT SCALE LENGTHS OF THE CLOUD WHICH IS COMPARABLE TO THE OXYGEN ION INERTIAL LENGTH AT IONOSPHERIC ALTITUDES (~ FEW KM). THE MAIN PAYLOAD WILL PROVIDE DC FIELDS PARTICLE (PITCH ANGLE RESOLVED THERMAL AND ENERGETIC ELECTRONS) AND WAVE DATA INSIDE AT THE BOUNDARIES AND OUTSIDE OF THE ALFVEN WINGS DUE TO THE RELATIVE MOTION OF PAYLOAD AND CLOUD. GROUND-BASED OPTICAL OBSERVATIONS TO RECORD THE MOTION OF THE RELEASES WILL BE MADE AT DOWNRANGE STATIONS. THE COMBINED DATA SET WILL PROVIDE BASIC INFORMATION ON THE MAGNITUDE AND SCALE OF THE ALFVENIC PERTURBATIONS AND QUANTIFY THE COUPLING. THE DATA IN COMBINATION WITH STATE-OF-THE-ART NUMERICAL SIMULATIONS WILL ALLOW US TO DISTINGUISH BETWEEN DIFFERENT PHYSICAL PROCESSES. 3. RELEVANCE THIS PROPOSAL ADDRESSES CENTRAL ELEMENTS OF NASA'S 2014 SCIENCE PLAN. SPECIFICALLY WE WILL EXPLORE THE PHYSICAL PROCESSES IN THE SPACE ENVIRONMENT FROM THE SUN TO THE EARTH AND THROUGHOUT THE SOLAR SYSTEM AND ADVANCE OUR UNDERSTANDING OF THE CONNECTIONS THAT LINK THE SUN THE EARTH PLANETARY SPACE ENVIRONMENTS AND THE OUTER REACHES OF OUR SOLAR SYSTEM BY STUDYING KINETIC-SCALE ENERGY AND MOMENTUM TRANSPORT. AURORAL ACCELERATION AND TURBULENT HEATING MODELS INVOKE KINETIC/INERTIAL ALFVEN WAVES MAKING THE PROPOSED EXPERIMENT IDEALLY SUITED FOR ADDRESSING FUNDAMENTAL SPACE PLASMA COUPLING PROCESSES. THE PROPOSED EXPERIMENT HAS SIGNIFICANT HERITAGE WITH NASA-SPONSORED SUBORBITAL MISSIONS AND ORBITAL MISSIONS (E.G. CRRES). THE PROBLEM DEFINITION HAS BEEN ELUCIDATED BY PREVIOUS AND CURRENT NASA MISSIONS (E.G. THEMIS MMS FAST CASSINI GALILEO AND JUNO). THE PAST 20 YEARS HAVE SEEN SIGNIFICANT ADVANCES IN BOTH IN SITU INSTRUMENTATION AND GROUND BASED OPTICS CAPABILITY. COMBINED WITH ADVANCED NUMERICAL SIMULATION METHODS THE PROPOSED EXPERIMENT WITH ITS STRONG HERITAGE IS IDEALLY SUITED TO ATTACKING FUNDAMENTAL PROCESSES IN SPACE PLASMAS.