Other
Scientific paper
Aug 2004
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2004xmm..pres...19.&link_type=abstract
XMM Press Release SNR 19-2004
Other
Scientific paper
12 August 2004
ESA’s quartet of space-weather watchers, Cluster, has discovered vortices of ejected solar material high above the Earth. The superheated gases trapped in these structures are probably tunnelling their way into the Earth’s magnetic ‘bubble’, the magnetosphere. This discovery possibly solves a 17-year-mystery of how the magnetosphere is constantly topped up with electrified gases when it should be acting as a barrier.
hi-res
Size hi-res: 1446 Kb Credits: H. Hasegawa (Dartmouth College)
Three-dimensional cut-away view of Earth's magnetosphere This figure shows a three-dimensional cut-away view of Earth' s magnetosphere. The curly features sketched on the boundary layer are the Kelvin-Helmholtz vortices discovered by Cluster. They originate where two adjacent flows travel with different speed. In this case, one of the flows is the heated gas inside the boundary layer of the magnetosphere, the other the solar wind just outside it. The arrows show the direction of the magnetic field, in red that associated with the solar wind and in green the one inside Earth’s magnetosphere. The white dashed arrow shows the trajectory followed by Cluster.
High resolution version (JPG format) 1446 Kb
High resolution version (TIFF format) 15 365 Kb
hi-res
Size hi-res: 22 Kb Credits: H. Hasegawa (Dartmouth College)
Electrified gas varies across the vortices along Cluster’s trajectory This computer simulation shows how the density of the electrified gas is expected to vary across the vortices along Cluster’s trajectory (white dashed line). The density is lower inside the boundary layer (blue region) and higher outside, in the region dominated by the solar wind (shown in red). The density variations measured by the instruments on board Cluster match those predicted by this model.
Low resolution version (JPG format) 22 Kb
High resolution version (TIFF format) 3438 Kb
The Earth’s magnetic field is our planet’s first line of defence against the bombardment of the solar wind. The solar wind itself is launched from the Sun and carries the Sun’s magnetic field throughout the Solar System. Sometimes this magnetic field is aligned with Earth’s and sometimes it points in the opposite direction.
When the two fields point in opposite directions, scientists understand how ‘doors’ in Earth’s field can open. This phenomenon, called ‘magnetic reconnection’, allows the solar wind to flow in and collect in the reservoir known as the boundary layer. On the contrary, when the fields are aligned they should present an impenetrable barrier to the flow. However, spacecraft measurements of the boundary layer, dating back to 1987, present a puzzle because they clearly show that the boundary layer is fuller when the fields are aligned than when they are not. So how is the solar wind getting in?
Thanks to the data from the four formation-flying spacecraft of ESA’s Cluster mission, scientists have made a breakthrough. On 20 November 2001, the Cluster flotilla was heading around from behind Earth and had just arrived at the dusk side of the planet, where the solar wind slides past Earth’s magnetosphere. There it began to encounter gigantic vortices of gas at the magnetopause, the outer ‘edge’ of the magnetosphere.
“These vortices were really huge structures, about six Earth radii across,” says Hiroshi Hasegawa, Dartmouth College, New Hampshire who has been analysing the data with help from an international team of colleagues. Their results place the size of the vortices at almost 40 000 kilometres each, and this is the first time such structures have been detected.
These vortices are known as products of Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities (KHI). They can occur when two adjacent flows are travelling with different speeds, so one is slipping past the other. Good examples of such instabilities are the waves whipped up by the wind slipping across the surface of the ocean. Although KHI-waves had been observed before, this is the first time that vortices are actually detected.
When a KHI-wave rolls up into a vortex, it becomes known as a ‘Kelvin Cat’s eye’. The data collected by Cluster have shown density variations of the electrified gas, right at the magnetopause, precisely like those expected when travelling through a ‘Kelvin Cat’s eye’.
Scientists had postulated that, if these structures were to form at the magnetopause, they might be able to pull large quantities of the solar wind inside the boundary layer as they collapse. Once the solar wind particles are carried into the inner part of the magnetosphere, they can be excited strongly, allowing them to smash into Earth’s atmosphere and give rise to the aurorae.
Cluster’s discovery strengthens this scenario but does not show the precise mechanism by which the gas is transported into Earth’s magnetic bubble. Thus, scientists still do not know whether this is the only process to fill up the boundary layer when the magnetic fields are aligned. For those measurements, Hasegawa says, scientists will have to wait for a future generation of magnetospheric satellites.
Notes for editors
The results of this investigation have appeared in today’s issue of the scientific journal Nature, in a paper entitled ‘Transport of solar wind into Earth's magnetosphere through rolled-up Kelvin-Helmholtz vortices’, by H. Hasegawa, M. Fujimoto, T.D. Phan, H. Reme, A. Balogh, M.W. Dunlop, C. Hashimoto and R. TanDokoro.
More about magnetic reconnection
Solar wind particles follow ‘magnetic field lines’, rather like beads on a wire. The ‘doors’ that open in Earth’s magnetosphere during oppositely aligned magnetic configurations are caused by a phenomenon called ‘magnetic reconnection‘. During this process, Earth’s field lines spontaneously break and join themselves to the Sun’s, allowing the solar wind to pass freely into Earth’s magnetosphere. Magnetic reconnections are not possible in the aligned case, however, hence the need for a different mechanism to inject the particles into Earth’s magnetosphere.
More about Cluster
Cluster is a mission of international co-operation between ESA and NASA. It involves four spacecraft, launched on two Russian rockets during the summer of 2000. They are now flying in formation around Earth, relaying the most detailed ever information about how the solar wind affects our planet in 3D. The solar wind is the perpetual stream of subatomic particles given out by the Sun and it can damage communications satellites and power stations on Earth. The Cluster mission is expected to continue until at least 2005.
The ongoing archiving of the Cluster data (or Cluster Active Archive) is part of the International Living with a Star programme (ILWS), in which space agencies worldwide get together to investigate how variations in the Sun affect the environment of Earth and the other planets. In particular, ILWS concentrate on those aspects of the Sun-Earth system that may affect mankind and society. ILWS is a collaborative initiative between Europe, the United States, Russia, Japan and Canada.
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