The magnetosheath in Earth's magnetic environment
Date: 28 January 2018
Satellite: Cluster and THEMIS
Copyright: ESA (background and Cluster spacecraft); NASA (THEMIS spacecraft)
Illustration showing spacecraft of ESA's Cluster mission (top) and NASA's THEMIS mission (bottom) flying through Earth's magnetosheath, the highly turbulent boundary region between the solar wind and the magnetosphere around our planet.
A study based on data collected by these missions has estimated how much energy is transferred from larger to smaller scales within the magnetosheath, revealing that turbulence is the key, making this process a hundred times more efficient than in the solar wind.
The study included several years of data from four Cluster spacecraft and two THEMIS spacecraft.
Last Update: 1 September 2019
