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The Solar Wind
The Magnetosphere
The Bow Shock
The Magnetotail
Substorms
Data Analysis
Simulation
Science Topics
Missions
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Space Plasma
A plasma is made up of charged particles (usually mostly electrons and
protons) which feel forces due to magnetic and electric fields.
Plasma fills all of space between the hot outer layers of the Sun
(the corona)
to the upper layers of the Earth's atmosphere (the ionosphere).
This particular kind of astrophysical plasma can actually be
visited by experiments on spacecraft, and its properties, such
as magnetic field and density, can be measured locally. Thus
these plasmas are generally known as space plasmas.
Space plasmas form the natural environment for all solar system bodies:
the Sun, the planets, comets, and finally the interaction with the
interstellar medium. Any theory or idea about space plasma behaviour
it subject to rigorous testing, because spacecraft can take local
measurements in amazing detail. All the physical properties of the
plasma, together with any propagating EM radiation that might interact
with the plasma, can be recorded with hihg time resolution. This allows
us to treat space as a plasma laboratory to study such fundamental
processes as turbulence, waves, instabilities, shocks, reconnection
and particle acceleration. Thus space plasmas can be a testing
ground for our understanding of astrophysical plasmas in more
exotic and distant objects such as pulsars, AGN, and super nova
remnants.
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