The solar wind-magnetosphere dynamo and the magnetospheric substorm
Abstract
In a quiet condition, the solar wind kinetic energy is converted into electrical energy. A small part of this energy is dissipated as heat energy in the polar ionosphere. We identify at least three types of magnetospheric disturbances which are not associated with an increase of the heat production and call them reversible disturbances, while the magnetospheric substorm is an irreversible disturbance which is associated with a large increase of the heat production. The magnetosphere appears to have an inherent internal instability by which a large amount of heat energy is sporadically produced in the polar upper atmosphere at the expense of the magnetic energy in the magnetotail. A positive feed-back process may be responsible for the growth of the instability and for the expansive phase, while the recovery phase sets in when some process begins to suppress the positive feed-back process.
- Publication:
-
Planetary and Space Science
- Pub Date:
- May 1975
- DOI:
- 10.1016/0032-0633(75)90018-5
- Bibcode:
- 1975P&SS...23..817A
- Keywords:
-
- Dynamo Theory;
- Earth Magnetosphere;
- Magnetic Disturbances;
- Polar Caps;
- Solar Wind;
- Atmospheric Circulation;
- Energy Conversion;
- Geomagnetism;
- Lines Of Force;
- Magnetic Storms;
- Magnetohydrodynamics;
- Plasma Interactions;
- Positive Feedback;
- Geophysics