As a star spins-down during the main sequence, its wind properties are affected. In this work, we investigate how the Earth's magnetosphere has responded to the change in the solar wind. Earth's magnetosphere is simulated using 3D magnetohydrodynamic models that incorporate the evolving local properties of the solar wind. The solar wind, on the other hand, is modelled in 1.5D for a range of rotation rates Omega from 50 to 0.8 times the present-day solar rotation (Omega_sun). Our solar wind model uses empirical values for magnetic field strengths, base temperature and density, which are derived from observations of solar-like stars. We find that for rotation rates ~10 Omega_sun, Earth's magnetosphere was substantially smaller than it is today, exhibiting a strong bow shock. As the sun spins down, the magnetopause standoff distance varies with Omega^{-0.27} for higher rotation rates (early ages, > 1.4 Omega_sun), and with Omega^{-2.04} for lower rotation rates (older ages, < 1.4 Omega_sun). This break is a result of the empirical properties adopted for the solar wind evolution. We also see a linear relationship between magnetopause distance and the thickness of the shock on the subsolar line for the majority of the evolution (< 10 Omega_sun). It is possible that a young fast rotating Sun would have had rotation rates as high as 30 to 50 Omega_sun. In these speculative scenarios, at 30 Omega_sun, a weak shock would have been formed, but for 50 Omega_sun, we find that no bow shock could be present around Earth's magnetosphere. This implies that with the Sun continuing to spin down, a strong shock would have developed around our planet, and remained for most of the duration of the solar main sequence.
The Earth's magnetosphere extension is controlled by the solar activity level via solar wind properties. Understanding such a relation in the Solar System is important for predicting also the condition of exoplanetary magnetospheres near Sun-like stars. We use measurements of a chromospheric proxy, the Ca II K index, and solar wind OMNI parameters to connect the solar activity variations, on the decennial time scales, to the solar wind properties. The data span over the time interval 1965-2021, which almost entirely covers the last 5 solar cycles. Using both cross-correlation and mutual inform…
Radial Diffusion Driven by Spatially Localized ULF Waves in the Earth's Magnetosphere
University of Helsinki（赫尔辛基大学）；University of Leicester（莱斯特大学）；University of St Andrews（圣安德鲁斯大学）；University of Birmingham（伯明翰大学）；University of Exeter（埃克塞特大学）
Bodies such as planets, moons, and asteroids in our solar system are the brightest objects in the low-frequency radio astronomy at $\lesssim$ 10 GHz. The low-frequency radio emissions from our solar system bodies exhibit various observed characteristics in the spectrum, polarization, periodicity, and flux. The observed characteristics are essential probes for explorations of the bodies' magnetosphere, atmosphere, surface, and even their interior. Generation and propagation theories of the radio emissions associate the characteristics with fundamental physics embedded in the environments: e.g.,…
Context: The stellar wind and the interplanetary magnetic field modify the topology of planetary magnetospheres. Consequently, the hazardous effect of the direct exposition to the stellar wind, for example regarding the integrity of satellites orbiting the Earth or the habitability of exoplanets, depend upon the space weather conditions. Aims: The aim of the study is to analyze the response of an Earth-like magnetosphere for various space weather conditions and interplanetary coronal mass ejections. The magnetopause stand off distance, open-close field line boundary and plasma flows towards th…
In the Earth magnetosphere, sunspots and magnetic cusp fusion devices, the boundary between the plasma and the magnetic field is marked by a diamagnetic current layer with a rapid change in plasma pressure and magnetic field strength. First principles numerical simulations were conducted to investigate this boundary layer with a spatial resolution beyond electron gyroradius while incorporating a global equilibrium structure. The boundary layer thickness is discovered to be on the order of electron gyroradius scale due to a self-consistent electric field suppressing ion gyromotion at the bounda…
The aim of this research is to simulate the interaction of the solar wind with the magnetic field of Mercury and to study the particle fluxes between the magnetosheath and the planet surface. We simulate the magnetosphere structure using the open source MHD code PLUTO in spherical geometry with a multipolar expansion of the Hermean magnetic field (Anderson, B. J. et al, 2012). We perform two simulations with realistic solar wind parameters to study the properties of a plasma stream originated in the reconnection region between the interplanetary and the Hermean magnetic field. The plasma preci…
The composition of ions plays a crucial role for the fundamental plasma properties in the terrestrial magnetosphere. We investigate the oxygen-to-hydrogen ratio in the near-Earth magnetosphere from -10 RE<XGSE}< 10 RE. The results are based on seven years of ion flux measurements in the energy range ~10 keV to ~955 keV from the RAPID and CIS instruments on board the Cluster satellites. We find that (1) hydrogen ions at ~10 keV show only a slight correlation with the geomagnetic conditions and interplanetary magnetic field changes. They are best correlated with the solar wind dynamic pressure a…
For main-sequence stars beyond spectral type M5 the characteristics of magnetic activity common to warmer solar-like stars change into the brown-dwarf domain: the surface magnetic field becomes more dipolar and the evolution of the field patterns slows, the photospheric plasma is increasingly neutral and decoupled from the magnetic field, chromospheric and coronal emissions weaken markedly, and the efficiency of rotational braking rapidly decreases. Yet, radio emission persists, and has been argued to be dominated by electron-cyclotron maser emission instead of the gyrosynchrotron emission fro…
Using the newly developed code \emph{Menura}, we present the first global picture of the interaction between a turbulent solar wind and a planetary obstacle in our solar system, namely a comet. This first publication aims at shedding lights on the macroscopic effect of the upstream solar wind turbulence on the induced magnetosphere of a comet. Using a hybrid Particle In Cell simulation code, we model a medium activity comet, using both a turbulent and a laminar solar wind input, for a direct comparison between the two regimes. We show how the turbulent characteristics of the solar wind lead to…
The aim of this study is to simulate the interaction of the solar wind with the Hermean magnetosphere when the interplanetary magnetic field is weak, performing a parametric study for all the range of hydrodynamic values of the solar wind predicted on Mercury for the ENLIL + GONG WSA + Cone SWRC model: density from $12$ to $180$ cm$^{-3}$, velocity from $200$ to $500$ km/s and temperatures from $2 \cdot 10^4$ to $18 \cdot 10^4$ K, and compare the results with a real MESSENGER orbit as reference case. We use the code PLUTO in spherical coordinates and an asymmetric multipolar expansion for the …
Solar wind-magnetosphere coupling, its causes and consequences have been studied for the last several decades. However, the assessment of continuously changing behaviour of the sun, plasma and field flows in the interplanetary space and their influence on geomagnetic activity is still a subject of intense research. Search for the best possible coupling function is also important for space weather prediction. We utilize four geomagnetic indices (ap, aa, AE and Dst) as parameters of geomagnetic activity level in the earth's magnetosphere. In addition to these indices, we utilize various solar wi…
A number of ultra-cool dwarfs emit circularly polarised radio waves generated by the electron cyclotron maser instability. In the solar system such radio is emitted from regions of strong auroral magnetic field-aligned currents. We thus apply ideas developed for Jupiter's magnetosphere, being a well-studied rotationally-dominated analogue in our solar system, to the case of fast-rotating UCDs. We explain the properties of the radio emission from UCDs by showing that it would arise from the electric currents resulting from an angular velocity shear in the fast-rotating magnetic field and plasma…
The aim of this study is to simulate the slow mode structures in the Hermean magnetosphere. We use a single fluid MHD model and a multipolar expansion of the Northward displaced Hermean magnetic field, to perform simulations with different solar wind parameter to foreseen the most favorable configuration for the formation of slow modes, attending to the solar wind density, velocity, temperature and the interplanetary magnetic field orientation. If the interplanetary magnetic field is aligned with the Mercury-Sun direction, the magnetic axis of Mercury in the Northward direction or the planet o…
Context: Active stars possess magnetized wind that has a direct impact on planets that can lead to radio emission. Mercury is a good test case to study the effect of the solar wind and interplanetary magnetic field on radio emission driven in the planet magnetosphere. Such studies could be used as proxies to characterize the magnetic field topology and intensity of exoplanets. Aims: The aim of this study is to quantify the radio emission in the Hermean magnetosphere. Methods: We use the MHD code PLUTO in spherical coordinates with an axisymmetric multipolar expansion for the Hermean magnetic f…
After 9 years in the Saturn system, the Cassini spacecraft finally observed Titan in the supersonic solar wind. These unique observations reveal that Titan interaction with the solar wind is in many ways similar to un-magnetized planets Mars and Venus in spite of the differences in the properties of the solar plasma in the outer solar system. In particular, Cassini detected a collisionless, supercritical bow shock and a well-defined induced magnetosphere filled with mass-loaded interplanetary magnetic field lines, which drape around Titan ionosphere. Although the flyby altitude may not allow t…
In this paper we explore the effectiveness of an artificial mini-magnetosphere as a potential radiation shelter for long term human space missions. Our study includes the differences that the plasma environment makes to the efficiency of the shielding from the high energy charged particle component of solar and cosmic rays, which radically alters the power requirements. The incoming electrostatic charges are shielded by fields supported by the self captured environmental plasma of the solar wind, potentially augmented with additional density. The artificial magnetic field generated on board ac…
For the first time, we explore the tightly coupled interior-magnetosphere system of Mercury by employing a three-dimensional ten-moment multifluid model. This novel fluid model incorporates the non-ideal effects including the Hall effect, inertia, and tensorial pressures that are critical for collisionless magnetic reconnection; therefore, it is particularly well suited for investigating $collisionless$ magnetic reconnection in Mercury's magnetotail and at the planet's magnetopause. The model is able to reproduce the observed magnetic field vectors, field-aligned currents, and cross-tail curre…
The importance of the Jovian thermosphere with regard to magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling is often neglected in magnetospheric physics. We present the first study to investigate the response of the Jovian thermosphere to transient variations in solar wind dynamic pressure, using an azimuthally symmetric global circulation model coupled to a simple magnetosphere and fixed auroral conductivity model. In our simulations, the Jovian magnetosphere encounters a solar wind shock or rarefaction region and is subsequently compressed or expanded. We present the ensuing response of the coupling currents…
Magnetic reconnection plays an important role in converting energy while modifying field topology. This process takes place in varied plasma environments in which the transport of magnetic flux is intrinsic. Identifying active magnetic reconnection sites in in-situ observations is challenging. A new technique, Magnetic Flux Transport (MFT) analysis, has been developed recently and proven in numerical simulation for identifying active reconnection efficiently and accurately. In this study, we examine the MFT process in 37 previously reported electron diffusion region (EDR)/reconnection-line cro…
The Earth's magnetosphere represents a natural plasma laboratory that allows us to study the behavior of particle distribution functions in the absence of Coulomb collisions, typically described by the Kappa distributions. We have investigated the properties of these functions for ions and electrons in different magnetospheric regions, thereby making it possible to reveal the $κ$-parameters for a wide range of plasma beta ($β$) values (from $10^{-3}$ to $10^{2}$). This was done using simultaneous ion and electron measurements from the five Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions dur…
We present a follow up study of the sensitivity of the Earth's magnetosphere to solar wind activity using a particles-in-cell model [Baraka and Ben Jaffel, 2007], but here during northward IMF. The formation of the magnetospheric cavity and its elongation is obtained with the classical structure of a magnetosphere with parallel lobes. An impulsive disturbance is then applied to the system by changing the bulk velocity of the solar wind to simulate a decrease in the solar wind dynamic pressure followed by its recovery. In response to the imposed disturbance, a gap [abrupt depression] in the inc…
Understanding the sources of lunar water is crucial for studying the history of lunar evolution, and also the solar wind interaction with the Moon and other airless bodies. Recent observations revealed lunar hydration is very likely a surficial dynamic process driven by solar wind. Solar wind is shielded over a period of 3-5 days as the Moon passes through the Earth's magnetosphere, during which a significant loss of hydration is expected from previous works.Here we study lunar hydration inside the magnetosphere using orbital spectral data, which unexpectedly found that the polar surficial OH/…
A planet's magnetosheath extends from downstream of its bow shock up to the magnetopause where the solar wind flow is deflected around the magnetosphere and the solar wind embedded magnetic field lines are draped. This makes the region an important site for plasma turbulence, instabilities, reconnection and plasma depletion layers. A relatively high Alfvén Mach number solar wind and a polar-flattened magnetosphere make the magnetosheath of Saturn both physically and geometrically distinct from the Earth's. The polar flattening is predicted to affect the magnetosheath magnetic field structure a…
Planets with several Earth masses and a few day orbital periods have been discovered through radial velocity and transit surveys. Regardless of their formation mechanism, a key evolution issue is the efficiency of their retention near their host stars. If these planets attained their present-day orbits during or shortly after the T Tauri phase of their host stars, a large fraction would have encountered intense stellar magnetic field. Since these planets have a higher conductivity than the atmosphere of their stars, the magnetic flux tube connecting the planet and host star would slip though t…
Previously, we have presented the first study to investigate the response of the Jovian thermosphere to transient variations in solar wind dynamic pressure, using a coupled, azimuthally symmetric global circulation model coupled with a simple magnetosphere model. This work (Yates et al., 2013, submitted) described the response of thermospheric flows, momentum sources, and the magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling currents to transient compressions and expansions in the magnetosphere. The present study describes the response of thermospheric heating, cooling and the auroral emissions to the aforeme…
We investigate the effect of the magnetic fields of M dwarf (dM) stars on potentially habitable Earth-like planets. These fields can reduce the size of planetary magnetospheres to such an extent that a significant fraction of the planet's atmosphere may be exposed to erosion by the stellar wind. We used a sample of 15 active dM stars, for which surface magnetic-field maps were reconstructed, to determine the magnetic pressure at the planet orbit and hence the largest size of its magnetosphere, which would only be decreased by considering the stellar wind. Our method provides a fast means to as…
The aim of this paper is to study the plasma flows on the Mercury surface for different interplanetary magnetic field orientations on the day side of the planet. We use a single fluid MHD model in spherical coordinates to simulate the interaction of the solar wind with the Hermean magnetosphere for six solar wind realistic configurations with different magnetic field orientations: Mercury-Sun, Sun-Mercury, aligned with the magnetic axis of Mercury (Northward and Southward) and with the orbital plane perpendicular to the previous cases. In the Mercury-Sun (Sun-Mercury) simulation the Hermean ma…
We carry out two-dimensional global particle-in-cell simulations of the interaction between the solar wind and a dipole field to study the formation of the bow shock and magnetosphere. A self-reforming bow shock ahead of a dipole field is presented by using relatively high temporal-spatial resolutions. We find that (1) the bow shock and the magnetosphere are formed and reach a quasi-stable state after several ion cyclotron periods, and (2) under the Bz southward solar wind condition the bow shock undergoes a self-reformation for low \b{eta}i and high MA. Simultaneously, a magnetic reconnection…
Using information on geomagnetic activity, sunspot numbers and cosmogenic isotopes, supported by historic eclipse images and in conjunction with models, it has been possible to reconstruct annual means of solar wind speed and number density and heliospheric magnetic field (HMF) intensity since 1611, when telescopic observations of sunspots began. These models are developed and tuned using data recorded by near-Earth interplanetary spacecraft and by solar magnetograms over the past 53 years. In this paper, we use these reconstructions to quantify power input into the magnetosphere over the past…
The magnetospheric cusps are important sites of the coupling of a magnetosphere with the solar wind. The combination of both ground- and space-based observations at Earth have enabled considerable progress to be made in understanding the terrestrial cusp and its role in the coupling of the magnetosphere to the solar wind via the polar magnetosphere. Voyager 2 fully explored Neptune's cusp in 1989 but highly inclined orbits of the Cassini spacecraft at Saturn present the most recent opportunity to repeatedly studying the polar magnetosphere of a rapidly rotating planet. In this paper we discuss…
The coupling of Jupiter's magnetosphere and ionosphere plays a vital role in creating its auroral emissions. The strength of these emissions is dependent on the difference in speed of the rotational flows within Jupiter's high-latitude thermosphere and the planet's magnetodisc. Using an azimuthally symmetric global circulation model, we have simulated how upstream solar wind conditions affect the energy and direction of atmospheric flows. In order to simulate the effect of a varying dynamic pressure in the upstream solar wind, we calculated three magnetic field profiles representing compressed…
Ultraviolet (UV) planetary astronomy is a unique tool to probe planetary environments of the solar system and beyond. But despite a rising interest for new generation giant UV telescopes regularly proposed to international agencies, none has been selected yet, leaving the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) as the most powerful UV observatory in activity. HST regularly observed the auroral emissions of the Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus systems, leading to significant discoveries and achievements. This rich legacy remains of high interest for further statistical and long-term studies, but new observation…
Planetary plasma and magnetic field environments can be studied by in situ measurements or by remote sensing. While the former provide precise information about plasma behaviour, instabilities and dynamics on local scales, the latter offers the global view necessary to understand the overall interaction of the magnetospheric plasma with the solar wind. Here we propose a novel and more elegant approach employing remote X-ray imaging techniques, which are now possible thanks to the relatively recent discovery of solar wind charge exchange X-ray emissions in the vicinity of the Earth's magnetosph…
Plasma rotation plays a large role in determining the size and shape of Saturn's disc-like magnetosphere. A magnetosphere more confined to the equator in the polar regions is expected as a result of the interaction between this type of obstacle and the solar wind. In addition, at times away from equinox, a north-south asymmetry is expected where the magnetopause will be further confined in one hemisphere but less confined in the opposite hemisphere. Examining the extent of this confinement has been limited by a lack of high-latitude spacecraft observations. Here, for the first time, direct evi…
We use the am, an, as and the a-sigma geomagnetic indices to the explore a previously overlooked factor in magnetospheric electrodynamics, namely the inductive effect of diurnal motions of the Earth's magnetic poles toward and away from the Sun caused by Earth's rotation. Because the offset of the (eccentric dipole) geomagnetic pole from the rotational axis is roughly twice as large in the southern hemisphere compared to the northern, the effects there are predicted to be roughly twice the amplitude. Hemispheric differences have previously been discussed in terms of polar ionospheric conductiv…
The pressure balance at the magnetopause is formed by magnetic field and plasma in the magnetosheath, on one side, and inside the magnetosphere, on the other side. In the approach of dipole earth's magnetic field configuration and gas-dynamics solar wind flowing around the magnetosphere, the pressure balance predicts that the magnetopause distance R depends on solar wind dynamic pressure Pd as a power low R ~ Pd^alpha, where the exponent alpha=-1/6. In the real magnetosphere the magnetic filed is contributed by additional sources: Chapman-Ferraro current system, field-aligned currents, tail cu…
The extent to which a magnetosphere protects its planetary atmosphere from stellar wind ablation depends upon how well it prevents energy and momentum exchange with the atmosphere and how well it traps otherwise escaping plasma. We focus on the former, and provide a formalism for estimating approximate upper limits on mass, energy, and momentum capture, and use them to constrain loss rates. Our approach quantifies a competition between the local deflection of incoming plasma by a planetary magnetic field and the increase in area for solar wind mass capture provided by this magnetosphere when t…
The outflowing magnetized wind from a host star shapes planetary and exoplanetary magnetospheres dictating the extent of its impact. We carry out three-dimensional (3D) compressible magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations of the interactions between magnetized stellar winds and planetary magnetospheres corresponding to a far-out star-planet system, with and without planetary dipole obliquity. We identify the pathways that lead to the formation of a dynamical steady-state magnetosphere and find that magnetic reconnection plays a fundamental role in the process. The magnetic energy density is foun…
We present calculations of the auroral radio powers expected from exoplanets with magnetospheres driven by an Earth-like magnetospheric interaction with the solar wind. Specifically, we compute the twin cell-vortical ionospheric flows, currents, and resulting radio powers resulting from a Dungey cycle process driven by dayside and nightside magnetic reconnection, as a function of planetary orbital distance and magnetic field strength. We include saturation of the magnetospheric convection, as observed at the terrestrial magnetosphere, and we present power law approximations for the convection …
Variation in total solar irradiance is thought to have little effect on the Earth's surface temperature because of the thermal time constant--the characteristic response time of the Earth's global surface temperature to changes in forcing. This time constant is large enough to smooth annual variations but not necessarily variations having a longer period such as those due to solar inertial motion; the magnitude of these surface temperature variations is estimated.
Exporting terrestrial life out of the Solar System requires a process that both embeds microbes in boulders and ejects those boulders out of the Solar System. We explore the possibility that Earthgrazing long-period comets and interstellar objects could export life from Earth by collecting microbes from the atmosphere and receiving a gravitational slingshot effect from the Earth. We estimate the total number of exportation events over the lifetime of the Earth to be $\sim 1 - 10$ for long-period comets and $\sim 1 - 50$ for interstellar objects. If life existed above an altitude of 100 km, the…
A modified version of panspermia theory, named Nebula-Relay hypothesis or local panspermia, is introduced to explain the origin of life on Earth. Primitive life, acting as the seeds of life on Earth, originated at pre-solar epoch through physicochemical processes and then filled in the pre-solar nebula after the death of pre-solar star. Then the history of life on the Earth can be divided into three epochs: the formation of primitive life in the pre-solar epoch; pre-solar nebula epoch; the formation of solar system and the Earth age of life. The main prediction of our model is that primitive l…
The origin of the Earth water reserves during the evolution of the planet is one of the big miracles in geophysics. Common explanations are storage of water in the Earth mantle at a time when the crust had not yet formed and depositing of water by comets during the time of late heavy bombardement. Both explanations have different problems - especially when comparing with the evolution of Mars and Venus. Here we discuss the possible role of hydrogen collected from the solar wind by the early Earth magnetosphere. While the water production by solar wind capture is very small today it may have be…
