Tour of the Plasmapause - April 2001

  • Released Monday, December 5, 2005
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The near-Earth space environment is filled with plasma formed when the sun's ultraviolet rays electrify the upper parts of the Earth's atmosphere. This region is called the plasmasphere and its outer boundary is called the plasmapause. Here we view the plasmasphere in a static state as the observer takes a slow polar-orbiting tour of the region.

Movie of orbiting tour of a static plasmasphere.

North polar view of plasmapause.

North polar view of plasmapause.

Equatorial view of the plasmapause.

Equatorial view of the plasmapause.

South polar view of the plasmapause.

South polar view of the plasmapause.

For More Information

See http://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/solarsystem/cold_front_feature.html

Credits

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio

This page was originally published on Monday, December 5, 2005.
This page was last updated on Wednesday, May 3, 2023 at 1:55 PM EDT.

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Papers used in this visualization

JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH, VOL. 110, A09S31, doi:10.1029/2004JA010928, 2005

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