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Coupling processes at the magnetopause

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Abstract

This review covers several aspects of magnetopause research during the two-year period from mid-1991 to mid-1993. It focusses upon three topics which received renewed attention: the structure of the steady-state magnetopause, the origin of the transient events which are superimposed upon it, and the cause of transient signatures observed by high-latitude dayside ground magnetometers. Case and statistical studies defined the relatively unknown characteristics of the magnetosheath plasma layers lying outside the magnetopause, while theoretical studies provided alternative explanations for the presence of magnetosheath plasma within the LLBL. Evidence was presented for a steady transition from magnetosheath to magnetospheric plasma parameters. Detailed studies described the plasma, energetic particle, and magnetic field characteristics of transient events in the outer dayside magnetosphere, and multipoint studies provided important new information concerning the ionospheric response to sudden changes in solar wind parameters. This review emphasizes the competing explanations which have been advanced to explain these phenomena.

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  1. The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, 20723, Laurel, MD, USA

    D. G. Sibeck

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Sibeck, D.G. Coupling processes at the magnetopause. Surv Geophys 16, 267–298 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01044570

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