Artist's impression showing the main regions/boundaries of the Earth's magnetosphere.

Further upstream of the bow shock, i.e. towards the Sun, Cluster is providing new measurements which contribute to a better understanding of various phenomena including: plasma turbulence and its role in the heating of the solar wind, backstreaming ions, pickup ions, and plasma bubbles (see Featured highlight below).

Cluster carries five instruments to measure the characteristics of electromagnetic waves in various frequency domains - STAFF, EFW, WHISPER, WBD and DWP - thus it is also ideally suited to provide new insight into the transmission of electromagnetic waves through the bow shock and the magnetosheath.

Featured highlight in this region: Cluster and Double Star discover density holes in the solar wind