Outer Magnetospheric Boundaries: Cluster Results (Space Sciences Series of ISSI) by Goetz Paschmann
Outer Magnetospheric Boundaries: Cluster Results (Space Sciences Series of ISSI) by Goetz Paschmann
English | Jan. 1, 2006 | ISBN: 1402034881 | 431 Pages | PDF | 13 MB
English | Jan. 1, 2006 | ISBN: 1402034881 | 431 Pages | PDF | 13 MB
When the stream of plasma emitted from the Sun (the solar wind) encounters Earth's magnetic field, it slows down and flows around it, leaving behind a cavity, the magnetosphere. The magnetopause is the surface that separates the solar wind on the outside from the Earth's magnetic field on the inside. Because the solar wind moves at supersonic speed, a bow shock must form ahead of the magnetopause that acts to slow the solar wind to subsonic speeds.