Month: September 2022

COORDINATES. “The geocentric solar magnetospheric coordinate system (GSM) is used in the following discussion. In that system, the x-axis points Sunward along the Sun-Earth line, the z-axis is in the plane containing the Sun-Earth line and the dipole axis and points northward, and the y-axis completes the right-handed triad pointing duskward.” https://link.springer.com/article/10.12942/lrsp-2007-1 View in LinkedIn

FIGURE. “Large-scale current systems in the magnetosphere. An enlargement of the Earth showing the auroral oval, auroral electrojet currents, and the large-scale Region 1 (more poleward) and Region 2 (more equatorward) currents bounding the high-latitude polar cap is shown in the background.” https://link.springer.com/article/10.12942/lrsp-2007-1 View in LinkedIn

MAGNETOSPHERE. “The solar wind motional electric field in the Earth’s frame of reference imposes a large-scale convection pattern within the magnetosphere and ionosphere. Dayside reconnection allows solar wind plasma and field entry to the dayside magnetosphere, from where the plasma convects across the polar cap and tail lobes to another reconnection location in the distant tail.” https://link.springer.com/article/10.12942/lrsp-2007-1 View in LinkedIn

MAGNET TAIL. “At the distant tail reconnection region, plasmas are accelerated toward and away from the reconnection region such that within the tail plasma sheet, the flows are Earthward on the Earthward side of the reconnection region and away from the Earth in the tailward side of the reconnection region .” https://link.springer.com/article/10.12942/lrsp-2007-1 View in LinkedIn

PLASMA RIVERS. “In the ionosphere, this large-scale convection pattern induces antisunward flow across the polar cap and sunward plasma flow in the auroral region ionosphere. This basic flow pattern (in highly variable forms) can always be found underlying the temporal changes associated with the space weather events.” https://link.springer.com/article/10.12942/lrsp-2007-1 View in LinkedIn

PLASMAS AND FIELDS. “While the magnetospheric field in general excludes the solar wind plasma from the magnetosphere, at times the solar wind can gain entry into the magnetosphere through the magnetopause. This occurs when the IMF and the magnetospheric fields are antiparallel and magnetic reconnection creates an “open magnetosphere” configuration with a field component normal to the boundary.” (IMF= interplanetary magnetic field). https://link.springer.com/article/10.12942/lrsp-2007-1 View in LinkedIn

ORIENTATION. “The plasma entry is strongly modulated by the orientation of the interplanetary magnetic field, and thus enhanced during periods of southward IMF.” (IMF= interplanetary magnetic field). https://link.springer.com/article/10.12942/lrsp-2007-1 View in LinkedIn

ASYMMETRY. ‘While the plasma enters mostly through the dayside magnetopause, a portion of the particles gain entry through the magnetopause boundary layers at low latitudes, well tailward of the terminator.” https://link.springer.com/article/10.12942/lrsp-2007-1 View in LinkedIn