FLARE: A New User Facility for Laboratory Studies of Multiple-Scale Physics of Magnetic Reconnection and Related Phenomena in Heliophysics and Astrophysics

The FLARE device (Facility for Laboratory Reconnection Experiments; flare.pppl.gov) is a new laboratory experiment under construction at Princeton with first plasmas expected in the fall of 2017, based on the design of Magnetic Reconnection Experiment (MRX; mrx.pppl.gov) with much extended parameter ranges. Its main objective is to provide an experimental platform for the studies of magnetic reconnection and related phenomena in the multiple X-line regimes directly relevant to space, solar, astrophysical and fusion plasmas. The main diagnostics is an extensive set of magnetic probe arrays, simultaneously covering multiple scales from local electron scales ($\sim$2 mm), to intermediate ion scales ($\sim$10 cm), and global MHD scales ($\sim$1 m). Specific example space physics topics which can be studied on FLARE will be discussed.