Case Studies

Magnetosphere
Deareborn, MI - December 2001

Contributed by: Space Physics Research Lab University of Michigan

Magnetosphere image. Physics-based models such as this will lead to predictive space weather modeling capabilities. Future space weather forecasting centers will help protect space- and ground-based technological systems from the risk posed by space storms.

As our nation's technologies deployed in space and on the ground become more sophisticated, they also become more vulnerable to various dynamic phenomena which occur in the near-Earth space environment. As a consequence, a national goal has been set to produce a physics-based model of the space environment. This model would provide accurate predictions of phenomena and enable technology operators to protect their assets from space weather storms.
Space weather is a new term in the lexicon of science. It refers to surges of matter and magnetic energy blown off the sun that periodically sweep across interplanetary space. Space weather can influence the performance and reliability of space-borne and ground-based technological systems, and can effect human life or health. The most powerful space storms can unleash billion of tons of matter, with an energy equivalent to 100 million atomic bombs into space.

Twenty years ago the only consequence of space weather was a good aurora. But now we live in an age where cell phones, pocket PCs, complex electrical grids and the Internet keep us connected 24 hours a day. It is an age in which satellites are vital tools in communication and commerce, an age where a space storm smashing into Earth's protective magnetic blanket can cause millions of dollars in damage.

The Center for Space Environment Modeling at the University of Michigan is leading the way in developing high-performance, first-principles based computational models to describe and predict the hasardous conditions caused by space weather. Their long term goal is to achieve significant progress in the quest toward a predictive space weather modeling capability which can eventually be transitioned to use by civilian and Department of Defense space weather forecasting centers.

The image at the top of the page demonstrates the coupling between the solar wind and the earth's magnetosphere. The plot is a 2-D slice through the noon-midnight meridian from a 3-D global magnetohydrodynamic simulation. The white lines represent magnetic field lines in the near-earth environment. These field lines are a result of the solar wind magnetic field and the earth's dipole field. The field lines are distorted by streaming solar wind.

3-D rendering of the main image. The white lines represent closed magnetic field lines which are just inside the magnetopause, while the red lines represent the last closed magnetic field lines inside the tail.

In the image the earth's magnetic field is represented by a pair of magnetic poles at the center of the earth. The unseen magnetised solar wind is streaming from the left. The result is a standing shock wave ahead of earth, followed by a tangential discontinuity, called the magnetopause. The magnetopause separates the solar wind plasma from the region dominated by the presence of earth's magnetic field, the so called magnetosphere. The color contours represent plasma pressure which is the result of the interaction between charged particles in the solar wind and the Earth's magnetic field. X- and Y-units are given in units of Earth Radius.

The data used to create the image was generated with a space environment model developed by a multidisciplinary team led by the Center for Space Environment Modeling. The image was created with Tecplot.

Sources and further reading:

http://www-personal.engin.umich.edu/~tamas/spaceweather.html
http://www-personal.engin.umich.edu/%7Etamas/insights-vol15/story2.htm
http://www-personal.engin.umich.edu/%7Etamas/

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