Structures in the Earth's Magnetosphere Boundary Layers

About Boundary Layers:

The schematic below shows the very complicated nature of the structure of the magnetosphere. The solar wind flows out from the Sun supersonically. When it encounters an obstacle such as the Earth a shock wave is generated, in much the same fashion as a supersonic plane generates a shock wave. The solar wind in turn modifies the environment around the Earth, compressing the dayside magnetosphere and stretching the nighside into a long tail. As it does so thin boundary layers are set up where there is the interchange of plasma from the solar wind, magnetosphere and ionosphere. Particle simulations are used to examine this interchange, particularly in regions like the magnetopause, the low latitude boundary layer, the plasma sheet boundary layer, and in the auroral regions. These particle simulations are used to model the wave-particle interactions causing the mixing of plasmas, and the derived distributions have been compared successfully with in situ observations, particularly with Dynamics Explorer 1. Continued comparisons with observations from new spacecraft like WIND and POLAR are planned.