Substorms in the earth's magnetosphere

Conference · Mon Jun 30 04:00:00 EDT 1986 · AIP Conf. Proc.; (United States)

OSTI ID:7021865

Baker, D N

Magnetospheres are plasma regions of large scale in space dominated by magnetic field effects. The Earth, and many planets in our solar system, are known to have magnetospheric regions around them. Magnetospheric substorms represent the intense, rapid dissipation of energy that has been extracted from the solar wind and stored temporarily in the terrestrial magnetotail. In this paper a widely, but not universally, accepted model of substorms is described. The energy budgets, time scales, and conversion efficiencies for substorms are presented. The primary forms of substorm energy dissipation are given along with the average levels of the dissipation. Aspects of particle acceleration and precipitation, Joule heating mechanisms, ring current formation, and plasmoid escape are illustrated based on in situ observations taken from the large available data base. A brief description is given of possible analogues of substorm-like behavior in other astrophysical systems.

• Research Organization: University of California, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545
• OSTI ID: 7021865
• Report Number(s): CONF-8408121-
• Conference Information: Journal Name: AIP Conf. Proc.; (United States) Journal Volume: 144:1
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

640107 -- Astrophysics & Cosmology-- Planetary Phenomena
640201* -- Atmospheric Physics-- Auroral
Ionospheric
& Magetospheric Phenomena
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
ATMOSPHERES
DISASTERS
EARTH ATMOSPHERE
EARTH MAGNETOSPHERE
ELECTRIC HEATING
ENERGY LOSSES
HEATING
JOULE HEATING
LOSSES
PLANETARY ATMOSPHERES
PLANETARY MAGNETOSPHERES
PLASMA HEATING
RESISTANCE HEATING
SOLAR ACTIVITY
SOLAR WIND
STORMS