Other
Scientific paper
Apr 2000
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2000aps..aprh14004m&link_type=abstract
American Physical Society, April Meeting, April 29-May 2, 2000 Long Beach, CA, abstract #H14.004
Other
Scientific paper
Solar system plasmas can be viewed as laboratories for the study of astrophysical plasma systems because they can be diagnosed with a multiplicity of techniques that include localized, in situ measurements. Unanticipated plasma behaviors can be broadly diagnosed and compared with detailed plasma theories; for example the coherent, magnetic field-aligned acceleration of electrons causing the aurora, the beautiful northern and southern lights. However, fundamental questions remain even concerning processes that have received substantial diagnostic attention; for example the large scale electromagnetic interaction between the Earth's ionosphere and magnetosphere that sets up the conditions for auroral particle acceleration. A major difficulty is that space science is largely an observational rather than an experimental science. The critical procedure of hypothesis testing is severely limited. With the recent advances in the exploration of the solar system (including Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune), magnetospheric systems similar to Earth's have been explored that span a vastly broader range of parameter space than is available with the study of just one system. The comparative magnetospheres approach can move space plasma science closer the ideals of an experimental science since hypotheses developed with the study of one system (for example, the Earth) can be tested within similar systems that are in very different states. Here I review some outstanding questions regarding the Earth's space-plasma environment and discuss, using examples from other planetary systems, how the comparative approach may help answer some of these questions.
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