THE FPI SPECTROMETERS ON MMS ARE ABLE TO MEASURE FULL 3D VELOCITY DISTRIBUTIONS WITH UNPRECEDENTED TEMPORAL RESOLUTION (30 MS FOR ELECTRONS AND 150 MS FOR IONS). THIS RESOLUTION ALLOWS FOR THE FIRST TIME THE CAPABILITY TO CORRELATE RAPID VARIATIONS IN THE CHARACTERISTICS OF ELECTRIC AND MAGNETIC WAVEFORMS AND SPECTRA WITH SIMULTANEOUS CHANGES IN PROPERTIES OF THE MEASURED ELECTRON AND ION VELOCITY DISTRIBUTIONS. THE RELATION BETWEEN PARTICLE DISTRIBUTIONS AND WAVES IS BIDIRECTIONAL WITH PROPERTIES OF THE DISTRIBUTIONS (SUCH AS BEAMS AND TEMPERATURE ANISOTROPY) PLAYING A ROLE IN DRIVING WAVES WHILE THE WAVES IN TURN MODIFY THE DISTRIBUTION THROUGH WAVE-PARTICLE INTERACTIONS. THE PROPOSED RESEARCH EFFORT WILL EMPLOY A SUITE OF DATA ANALYSIS TOOLS MODEL THE DISTRIBUTIONS AND EVALUATE WAVE-PARTICLE INTERACTIONS IN THE VICINITY OF THE ELECTRON DIFFUSION REGION WHERE MAGNETIC RECONNECTION IS OCCURRING. SCIENCE GOALS AND OBJECTIVES: GIVEN THAT MAGNETIC RECONNECTION - THE PRIMARY PHYSICAL PROCESS INVESTIGATED BY THE MMS MISSION - INVOLVES DYNAMIC KINETIC INTERACTIONS BETWEEN WAVES AND THE PARTICLE DISTRIBUTIONS THAT GENERATED AND INTERACT WITH THOSE WAVES STUDYING THE TEMPORAL CORRELATIONS BETWEEN WAVES AND PARTICLE DISTRIBUTIONS ON TIME SCALES DOWN TO 30 MS THROUGH DIRECT ANALYSIS OF MMS DATA AND SUPPLEMENTED BY PIC SIMULATIONS WILL LEAD TO A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF THE UNDERLYING WAVE-PARTICLE CORRELATIONS. WE WILL INVESTIGATE THESE KINETIC INTERACTIONS BY ADDRESSING THE FOLLOWING SCIENCE QUESTIONS: Q1--HOW CAN IMPROVED MODELING OF OBSERVED FPI ELECTRON DISTRIBUTIONS (INCLUDING ENERGY-DEPENDENT ANISOTROPY AND AGYROTROPY MEASURES) ADD TO OUR UNDERSTANDING OF RECONNECTION? Q2--ARE THE PROPERTIES OF OBSERVED WAVES INCLUDING GROWTH AND DAMPING RATES DETERMINED BY FEATURES OF SIMULTANEOUSLY MEASURED DISTRIBUTIONS AT THE HIGHEST TEMPORAL RESOLUTION? Q3--WHEN CAN THE OBSERVED WAVES BE CLASSIFIED AS REMOTELY RATHER THAN LOCALLY GENERATED BASED ON SINGLE AND MULTIPLE SATELLITE OBSERVATIONS; AND WHAT QUANTITATIVE MEASURES OF ENERGY TRANSPORT DO THESE OBSERVATIONS PROVIDE? Q4--HOW IS THE FEEDBACK OF WAVES ON PARTICLE AND PARTICLES ON WAVES REFLECTED IN THE OBSERVATIONS AND WHAT ARE THEIR INFLUENCES ON THE RECONNECTION PROCESS?