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Earth's ring current is responsible for shielding the lower latitudes of the Earth from magnetospheric electric fields. It therefore has a large effect on the electrodynamics of geomagnetic storms . The ring current system consists of a band, at a distance of 3 to 8 R E , [ 1 ] which lies in the equatorial plane and circulates clockwise around ...
Total atmospheric mass is 5.1480 × 10 18 kg (1.13494 × 10 19 lb), [36] about 2.5% less than would be inferred from the average sea-level pressure and Earth's area of 51007.2 megahectares, this portion being displaced by Earth's mountainous terrain. Atmospheric pressure is the total weight of the air above unit area at the point where the ...
Magnetic north versus ‘true north’ At the top of the world in the middle of the Arctic Ocean lies the geographic North Pole, the point where all the lines of longitude that curve around Earth ...
The solar wind exerts a pressure, and if it could reach Earth's atmosphere it would erode it. However, it is kept away by the pressure of the Earth's magnetic field. The magnetopause , the area where the pressures balance, is the boundary of the magnetosphere.
Study of Earth's magnetosphere began in 1600, when William Gilbert discovered that the magnetic field on the surface of Earth resembled that of a terrella, a small, magnetized sphere. In the 1940s, Walter M. Elsasser proposed the model of dynamo theory, which attributes Earth's magnetic field to the motion of Earth's iron outer core.
Air density, like air pressure, decreases with increasing altitude. It also changes with variations in atmospheric pressure, temperature and humidity . At 101.325 kPa (abs) and 20 °C (68 °F), air has a density of approximately 1.204 kg/m 3 (0.0752 lb/cu ft), according to the International Standard Atmosphere (ISA).
The density of the particles in this region is considerably lower than what is found beyond the bow shock, but greater than within the magnetopause, and can be considered a transitory state. [1] [2] Schematic of Earth's magnetosphere, showing the relative position of the magnetosheath
In the height region between about 85 and 200 km altitude on Earth, the ionospheric plasma is electrically conducting. Atmospheric tidal winds due to differential solar heating or due to gravitational lunar forcing move the ionospheric plasma against the geomagnetic field lines thus generating electric fields and currents just like a dynamo coil moving against magnetic field lines.