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Source‐surface model of the magnetosphere
Author(s) -
Schulz Michael,
McNab Michael C.
Publication year - 1987
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/gl014i003p00182
Subject(s) - magnetosphere , magnetopause , physics , solar wind , dipole , geophysics , field line , surface (topology) , magnetic field , computational physics , plasma sheet , square (algebra) , moment (physics) , magnetic dipole , current sheet , classical mechanics , geometry , magnetohydrodynamics , mathematics , quantum mechanics
A new concept for modeling a planetary magnetosphere is implemented by juxtaposing the sunward portion of the magnetosphere (in which the magnetic field is expressed formally as an analytical expansion) and the tail region (in which field lines are constructed geometrically). The expansion coefficients for the sunward region are determined by means of a variational principle, according to which a user‐specified linear combination of the mean‐square normal component of on the prescribed magnetopause and the mean‐square tangential component of on the innermost cross‐magnetospheric surface normal to the tail field lines must be minimized. The contour of vanishing normal component of on this latter surface corresponds to the inner edge of the neutral sheet in the planetary magnetotail. In its present form the source‐surface model accommodates an arbitrary angle of incidence between the solar‐wind velocity and the planetary magnetic‐dipole moment.