The Aurora and the magnetosphere: The Chapman memorial lecture |
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| Authors: | S-I Akasofu |
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| Institution: | Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Alaska 99701, U.S.A. |
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| Abstract: | Magnetospheric physics owes its beginnings to the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century scientists who were fascinated by one of the most spectacular natural phenomena, the aurora. In the first section, a brief historical account of the growth of magnetospheric physics and solar-terrestrial physics is given.The main part of the paper reviews recent progress in magnetospheric physics, in particular, in understanding the magnetospheric substorm. A number of magnetospheric phenomena can now be understood by viewing the solar wind-magnetosphere interaction as an MHD dynamo; auroral phenomena are powered by the dynamo. We have also succeeded in identifying magnetospheric responses to variations of the north-south and east-west components of the interplanetary magnetic field.The magnetospheric substorm is entirely different from the responses of the magnetosphere to the southward component of the interplanetary magnetic field. It may be associated with the formation of a neutral line within the plasma sheet and with an enhanced reconnection along the line. A number of substorm-associated phenomena can be understood by noting that the new neutral line formation is caused by a short-circuiting of a part of the magnetotail current. |
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