Solar Wind Interaction with Giant Magnetospheres and Earth's Magnetosphere

Abstract

This chapter compares the solar wind interaction with Earth and with the giant magnetospheres and discusses implications for the magnetotail. The term "Dungey cycle" used throughout this chapter refers to the idealized situation where opening dayside reconnection drives large-scale (ideally two cells) ionospheric convection and closing reconnection occurs in the nightside tail region. Quantifying the momentum transfer from the solar wind to the magnetosphere is critical to understanding magnetospheric dynamics and ultimately to the formation of the magnetotail structure. While the overall topology of a draped magnetic field in a super-Alfvénic solar wind flow is similar between comets and magnetospheres, the basic mechanisms that cause the interplanetary magnetic field to drape are different. Magnetic reconnection couples the solar wind flow to a conductive ionosphere/atmosphere.