Simulation in the Front Region of the Earth’s Magnetosphere

Abstract

A laboratory experiment was conducted to investigate the interaction between a plasma beam and a magnetic dipole, simulating the interaction between the solar wind and magnetized planets. The emphasis in this paper is on the laboratory simulation in the front region of the Earth's magnetosphere and their variation under different solar wind conditions. The boundary in the front region of the magnetosphere is observed in a space simulation laboratory and the magnetospheric structure is produced by a super-Alfvénic and collisionless plasma beam interacting with terrella field. The boundary of the magnetosphere is determined by the factors that include solar wind parameters, such as magnetic fields, ion current density and magnetospheric structure images. It is interesting to compare the results of laboratory simulations with the empirical model by Shue et al. (1997) and the theoretical model by Cheng (1998) as well for the prediction of magnetopause locations under any solar wind condition. The comparisons show that for the northward IMF, magnetopause locations in the laboratory simulation are consistent with the theoretical model. As the magnitude of northward IMF B z becomes higher, the subsolar distance and the flank position in laboratory simulations are consistent with the empirical model as well. For a lower southward IMF B z , magnetopause locations in laboratory simulations are consistent with both the empirical and theoretical models. As the magnitude of the southward IMF B z becomes higher, the subsolar distance and the flank position in laboratory simulations seem closer to the theoretical model than the empirical model.

Interplanetary Magnetic Field (IMF) control over the global structures of laboratory magnetosphere

“…And the information of the aurora and radiation belt is observed for the first time in the UCR-T1 experiments. The topology and the flank position of the Earth's magnetopause have been investigated in previous paper (Yur et al 1995(Yur et al , 1999(Yur et al , 2012. The laboratory simulation of magnetosphere for dipole tilts is also a first trial in UCR-T1 experiments.…”

“…1d. The details of the experimental setup and scaling have been previously described in (Rahman et al 1989(Rahman et al , 1991Birn et al 1992;Yur et al 1995Yur et al , 2012.…”

“…However, these individual experiments still address the formation of each region of the magnetosphere in space physics. The tail and front regions have been studied at the UCR laboratory and observed for the southward and northward interplan etary magnetic fields (IMF) (Birn et al 1992;Yur et al 1999Yur et al , 2012. Laboratory simulations performing magnetosphere-solar wind interactions have been continued by different groups (Horton and Chiu 2004;Horton et al 2007;Brady et al 2009;Shaikhislamov et al 2011Shaikhislamov et al , 2014Saitoh et al 2015).…”

Laboratory model of magnetosphere created by strong plasma perturbation with frozen-in magnetic field

“…In (Yur et al 1999) the x-point was observed in the tail when a southward field was applied. A study of the front region of a magnetosphere (Yur et al 2012) revealed that, in fact, a region of opposite southward field does not exist upstream of the magnetopause. Thus, while authors claim that an external magnetic field partially penetrates into plasma, this is not supported by the data so far presented.…”