The Earth's Magnetosphere during the Magnetic Storm of January 10, 1997

J. Lyon, Dartmouth College; C. Goodrich and M. Wiltberger, U. of Maryland.

The image shows the stressed magnetospheric structure at the beginning of the magnetic storm, obtained from a global MHD simulation performed on the PSC Cray C90. In this view from the west, the translucent surface indicates the shape and extent of the earth's magnetic field. The colormap of (log) plasma density shows the sunward shock wave around the earth and the extended anti-sunward wake, or tail. The insert shows the more common, relaxed magnetospheric configuration from 3 hours earlier.

See also: More information, including an animation, of this research.