ESA Portal - Surfing and diving in the Earth's magnetosphere, Cluster celebrates one year of science excellence in orbit

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Surfing and diving in the Earth's magnetosphere, Cluster celebrates one year of science excellence in orbit

17 July 2001

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Artist's impression of Cluster.

Monitoring the magnetic shield around Spaceship Earth

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The magnetosphere - a natural protective bubble

This image shows the main regions of the magnetosphere which are being studied by Cluster.

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The Earth is protected by a powerful magnetic field which forces the solar wind to sweep around the planet. In the process, the magnetic field is shaped into a gigantic teardrop that typically extends about 65 000 km towards the Sun and more than two million km in the opposite direction. This region is the magnetosphere and is bounded by the magnetopause. Above the magnetopause is a layer of turbulent magnetic field (the magnetosheath) which is itself bounded by the bow shock. The polar cusps are 'windows' above the northern and southern polar regions where the particles from the solar wind can penetrate the magnetic shield.

The best is yet to come...

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The Earth's magnetosphere on the sunward side extends to about 65 000 km, but stretches to many times this on the side away from the Sun. In June 2001, Cluster began to explore the extended magnetotail. It is in this region that storms of high energy particles are generated. When these arrive on Earth they can result in auroras on the nightside of Earth. Other less attractive consequences are power cuts, damage to satellites and disruptions in communications.

Credits: ESA