What is a magnetosphere?
A magnetosphere corresponds to the region of space where physical phenomena are dominated by the magnetic field of a celestial body. For bodies with a global magnetic field, such as the Earth, Saturn or Jupiter, the magnetosphere is large.
The Earth's magnetosphere is elongated, and extends to more than 50,000 kilometres away from the Earth on the side oriented towards the Sun and several hundred thousand of kilometres on the opposite side.
Non-magnetised bodies that have an atmosphere like Venus and Mars are also surrounded by a magnetosphere created by electric currents flowing in the upper atmosphere. The dimensions of such induced magnetosphere are reduced, their outer boundary reaching altitudes of only a few hundred kilometres on the sun side.
The book “Magnetospheres in the Solar System”
The amount of data and knowledge accumulated about the magnetospheres of the solar system is considerable because of the variety of magnetospheres and of the means used to study them.
This book brings together contributions from experimentalists, theoreticians, and numerical modellers. It gives a comprehensive overview of the state of knowledge and future research directions in magnetospheric physics.
The book deals with the planets of the solar system, some of their satellites, comets, plasma physics, instruments and measurement methods, and numerical simulations. Each of the 47 chapters of this book is written by renowned specialists and has been reviewed by at least two other researchers in the field.
More than 200 researchers from all over the world have contributed to this project.
The book series “Space Physics and Aeronomy”
This book is part of a series of five “Geophysical Monographs” published by Wiley for the American Geophysical Union about the thermosphere, the ionosphere, the space weather, the magnetospheres and the Sun.
Romain Maggiolo was approached to be the main editor of the volume about magnetospheres because of his experience in the subject and because of the expertise and reputation of BIRA-IASB in the field of space physics.
Want to know more?
Space Physics and Aeronomy Collection Vol. 2: Magnetospheres in the Solar System, Geophysical Monograph 259. Edited by R. Maggiolo, N. André, H. Hasegawa, and D. T. Welling. © 2021 American Geophysical Union. Wiley & Sons Inc. DOI: 10.1002/9781119815624.ch1
- Table of Contents
- Access to the individual chapters
- Excerpt “A Brief History of the Magnetosphere” by D. J. Southwood
