Magnetospheric physics articles within Nature Physics

Featured

  • News & Views |

    Numerical simulations and spacecraft observations elucidate how ultralow-frequency waves transmit through collisionless shocks, which could not only advance our understanding of shocks but also have implications for space weather modelling.

    • Hui Zhang
    •  & Terry Z. Liu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The Earth’s bow shock results from the interaction of the solar wind with the terrestrial magnetic field. With global numerical simulations and spacecraft observations, the transmission of fast magnetosonic waves through the bow shock is revealed.

    • L. Turc
    • , O. W. Roberts
    •  & U. Ganse

  • Letter |

    The solar wind affects the magnetosphere, but whether this holds true for solar flares was unclear. By combining geospace modelling with observations, solar flares are shown to influence the dynamics of the magnetosphere and its ionosphere coupling.

    • Jing Liu
    • , Wenbin Wang
    •  & Frederick Wilder

  • Letter |

    Magnetic reconnection in the near-Earth magnetotail is observed to power a space storm, although suppression of magnetic reconnection caused by the Earth’s magnetic dipole was expected close to Earth.

    • Vassilis Angelopoulos
    • , Anton Artemyev
    •  & Yukinaga Miyashita

  • Article |

    Substorms in the Earth’s magnetosphere lead to bright aurorae, releasing energy into the surrounding ionosphere. Ground- and space-based observations now reveal how that energy is dissipated and controlled by strong electric currents.

    • E. V. Panov
    • , W. Baumjohann
    •  & M. V. Kubyshkina

  • Article |

    Processes in (space) plasmas occur on different levels — fluid, ion and electron. Now, from satellite data and simulations, an energy-transfer mechanism between the fluid and ion scales is reported: fluid velocity shear is converted into ion heating.

    • T. W. Moore
    • , K. Nykyri
    •  & A. P. Dimmock

  • News & Views |

    Two observational studies published in Nature Physics provided early evidence for the mechanisms of magnetic reconnection in three dimensions and in a turbulent medium.

    • Ellen Zweibel

  • Letter |

    The Van Allen radiation belts are two rings of charged particles encircling the Earth. Therefore the transient appearance in 2012 of a third ring between the inner and outer belts was a surprise. A study of the ultrarelativistic electrons in this middle ring reveals new physics for particles above 2 MeV.

    • Yuri Y. Shprits
    • , Dmitriy Subbotin
    •  & Kyung-Chan Kim

  • Letter |

    Magnetic reconnection in the Earth's magnetosphere accelerates electrons. And yet energetic electrons are not created during reconnection in the solar wind. Observations from the Cluster spacecraft now suggest that electron acceleration is caused by repeated bursts of plasma flow, which only occur in situations where the magnetic reconnection is unsteady.

    • H. S. Fu
    • , Yu. V. Khotyaintsev
    •  & M. André

  • News & Views |

    Geomagnetic storms driven by the solar wind can cause the flux of high-energy electrons in the Earth's Van Allen belts to rapidly fall. Analysis of data obtained during one such event from multiple spacecraft located at different altitudes in the magnetosphere reveals just where these electrons go.

    • Mary K. Hudson

  • Letter |

    Magnetic reconnection is a process by which the field lines of a magnetized plasma undergo dramatic realignment, releasing large amounts of energy. Large-scale simulations of reconnection events in the Earth’s magnetosphere suggest that this process takes place over much greater distances than previously expected.

    • J. Egedal
    • , W. Daughton
    •  & A. Le

  • Letter |

    Geomagnetic storms driven by the solar wind can cause a dramatic drop in the flux of high-energy electrons in the Earth’s outer Van Allen belt. Analysis of data obtained during such an event by three different sets of spacecraft suggests that these electrons are directed into space rather than lost to the atmosphere.

    • Drew L. Turner
    • , Yuri Shprits
    •  & Vassilis Angelopoulos

Browse broader subjects

Browse Magnetospheric physics across other nature.com journals