GEOL 212 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Thermosphere, Mass Spectrometry, Ionosphere

• School: University of Maryland
• Department: Geology
• Course: GEOL 212
• Professor: John Merck

Document Summary

Solar wind: the stream of ionized particles (plasma) flowing outward from the sun. Their flow is controlled by the sun"s magnetic field. Near the sun this is manifested in sunspots, solar flares and related phenomena. Farther away we can compare its magnetic field to a dipole, like a bar magnet and call it the interplanetary magnetic field(imf). The particles of the solar wind follow its field lines. No atmosphere or magnetic field: in the case of a body like the moon, with no atmosphere or magnetic field, the solar wind simply impacts the dayside surface, and cases a plasma shadow on the night side. We describe this in terms of two limits: magnetopause: inside this boundary, mercury"s magnetic field exerts the predominant force. Outside, the imf dominates: bow shock: the solar wind slows down abruptly as it nears the magnetopause, producing a shock wave like that of a supersonic aircraft.