The earth's magnetopause
The magnetopause forms as an equilibrium between the solar wind's
dynamic pressure and the magnetic pressure of the earth's magnetic
field. The magnetopause is an obstacle to the solar wind flow, and the
bulk of the solar wind flows around it. However, the dayside magnetosphere
is not empty. Plasma can be convected
from the nightside to the dayside or it can penetrate through
the magnetopause directly on the dayside, as plasmoids with higher
momentum density than the surrounding magnetosheath plasma collide
with the magnetopause. This was suggested by
Lemaire (Planet. Space Sci. vol. 25, 887-890, 1977) and
confirmed recently using data from the Cluster spacecraft
(
Gunell et al. 2012, Phys. Plasmas, vol. 19, 072906 (2012))
This phenomenon has also been studied in
laboratory experiments and computer simulations.
Two of the Cluster spacecraft measuring the ion temperature to show
that low temperature magnetosheath plasma penetrates the magnetopause.
Related publications
- "Plasma penetration of the dayside magnetopause"
by H. Gunell, H. Nilsson, G. Stenberg, M. Hamrin, T. Karlsson,
R. Maggiolo, M. André, R. Lundin, and I. Dandouras,
Copyright (2012) American Institute of Physics.
This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use
requires prior permission of the author and the American Institute
of Physics. This article
appeared in Physics of Plasmas, vol. 19, 072906 (2012) and may
be found at
http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4739446.
- "Waves in high-speed plasmoids in the magnetosheath and at
the magnetopause" by H. Gunell, G. Stenberg Wieser, M. Mella,
R. Maggiolo, H. Nilsson, F. Darrouzet, M. Hamrin, T. Karlsson,
N. Brenning, J. De Keyser, M. André, and I. Dandouras,
Annales Geophysicae, vol. 32, 991-1009, 2014,
doi:10.5194/angeo-32-991-2014.
The article includes
supplementary material.
- "Numerical experiments on plasmoids entering a transverse magnetic field"
by H. Gunell, J. J. Walker, M. E. Koepke, T. Hurtig, N. Brenning,
and H. Nilsson,
Copyright (2009) American Institute of Physics.
This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use
requires prior permission of the author and the American Institute
of Physics. This article
appeared in Physics of Plasmas, vol 16, 112901 (2009) and may be found
at (H. Gunell,
J. J. Walker, M. E. Koepke, T. Hurtig, N. Brenning, and H. Nilsson,
Phys. Plasmas 16, 112901,
2009, doi:10.1063/1.3267860).
- "Simulations of a plasmoid penetrating a magnetic barrier" by
H. Gunell, T. Hurtig, H. Nilsson, M. Koepke, N. Brenning,
Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion, vol. 50, 074013, 2008,
doi:10.1088/0741-3335/50/7/074013
Updated 2023-10-09
