Current sheets at the boundary of the magnetosphere

Boundary current sheets are formed when the solar wind interacts with the geomagnetic field, and the structure of the sheets depends on the direction of the magnetic field in the solar wind. A total pattern of the current sheets cannot be obtained through satellite measurements. The principal characteristics of current sheets in the magnetosphere can be reproduced if experimental parameters are chosen on the basis of the principle of limited simulation. It has been demonstrated that the Dungy scheme is reproduced only at Mach numbers that are not considerably higher than 1. The merging of geomagnetic and solar-wind magnetic field lines most often occurs in the region of the polar slits.