Reconnection Fronts - What the Models Say...
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- Visualizations by:
- Tom Bridgman
- View full credits
Mathematical models of Earth's magnetosphere have become increasingly more complex and accurate. They have sufficient detail to illustrate many small-scale phenomena.
In this simulation run of the Geospace General Circulation Model (GGCM) we see new details that have been observed by in situ satellites. As the solar wind is deflected around Earth's magnetosphere (the 'bubble' of plasma surrounding Earth held by Earth's magnetic field), plasma flows within the bubble can change. In the graphics below, physical variables such as magnetic field and electric currents are plotted. With these variables, we overlay the net flow of the plasma (arrows), subjected to selection criteria to separate flows of plasma away from Earth and towards Earth. Green arrows are low-speed flows (below about 150 kilometers/second), while red arrows correspond to high-speed plasmal flows (about 300 kilometers/second and higher).
Magnetic field in x-y plane (approximately Earth equatorial plane) but pointed in the z-direction with plasma flows directed TOWARDS Earth. Purple has the field pointed towards the camera, orange has the field pointed away from the camera. The solar wind approaches Earth (blue dot) from the left. The magnetotail extends to the right.
Magnetic field in x-y plane (approximately Earth equatorial plane) but pointed in the z-direction with plasma flows directed away from Earth towards the magnetotail. Purple has the field pointed towards the camera, orange has the field pointed away from the camera. The solar wind approaches Earth (blue dot) from the left. The magnetotail extends to the right.
Electric current in the x-y plane (approximately Earth equatorial plane) with plasma flows directed away from Earth towards the magnetotail. White corresponds to regions of high current density, black to low current density. The solar wind approaches Earth (blue dot) from the left. The magnetotail extends to the right.
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Credits
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio
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Animator
- Tom Bridgman (Global Science and Technology, Inc.) [Lead]
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Writer
- Karen Fox (ADNET Systems, Inc.)
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Video editor
- Genna Duberstein (ADNET Systems, Inc.)
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Scientists
- Joachim Raeder (University of New Hampshire)
- Vassilis Angelopoulos (University of California at Berkeley)
Missions
This visualization is related to the following missions:Datasets used in this visualization
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GGCM
ID: 582MHD Magnetospheric simulation
This dataset can be found at: http://openggcm.sr.unh.edu/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
See all pages that use this dataset
Note: While we identify the data sets used in these visualizations, we do not store any further details, nor the data sets themselves on our site.
Related Pages
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ID: 4080 Visualization
Reconnection Fronts - When Satellites Align...
Read moreIn July of 2012, a fleet of spacecraft studying Earth's magnetosphere were in an ideal alignment to detect a particle flow predicted in magnetospheric models. The grey mesh shell structure represents the approximate location of the magnetopause.In this visualization, THEMIS, ARTEMIS (in orbit around the Moon), and Geotail, as well as the particle detectors on the GOES-13 and GOES-15 satellites achieved a good alignment around 09:45 on July 3, 2012 to detect one of the particle flows predicted by magnetospheric models. ||
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ID: 11309 Produced Video
Several NASA Spacecraft Track Energy Through Space
Read moreTaking advantage of an unprecedented alignment of eight satellites through the vast magnetic environment that surrounds Earth in space, including NASA's ARTEMIS and THEMIS, scientists now have comprehensive details of the energy's journey through a process that forms the aurora, called a substorm. Their results showed that small events unfolding over the course of a millisecond can result in energy flows that last up to half an hour and cover an area 10 times larger than Earth.Trying to understand how gigantic explosions on the sun can create space weather effects involves tracking energy from the original event all the way to Earth. It's not unlike keeping tabs on a character in a play with many costume changes, because the energy changes form frequently along its journey: magnetic energy causes eruptions that lead to kinetic energy as particles hurtle away, or thermal energy as the particles heat up. Near Earth, the energy can change through all these various forms once again.Most of the large and small features of substorms take place largely in the portion of Earth's magnetic environment called the magnetotail. Earth sits inside a large magnetic bubble called the magnetosphere. As Earth orbits around the sun, the solar wind from the sun streams past the bubble, stretching it outward into a teardrop. The magnetotail is the long point of the teardrop trailing out to more than 1 million miles on the night side of Earth. The moon orbits Earth much closer, some 240,000 miles away, crossing in and out of the magnetotail. ||
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