The Interplanetary Magnetic Field and Solar Wind Driven Magnetospheric Reconfiguration

Abstract

The magnetic disturbances are associated with electric currents as it is well checked at laboratory room scales and described by the Maxwell's equations of electromagnetic field. The analysis of spacecraft observations for more than a quarter of a century failed to provide a self-consistent three-dimensional picture of the solar wind-magnetosphere dynamo generated magnetospheric and ionospheric current systems. The proposed solar wind and the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) driven reconfiguration of the earth's magnetosphere directly accounts for the observed magnetic disturbances. So role of the magnetospheric currents in creation of the magnetic disturbances is reconsidered in accordance with some poorly understood observations. A quantitative agreement with observations is demonstrated and a laboratory experiment to test the suggested model of the solar wind/IMF-magnetosphere interaction is described.