Articles | Volume 16, issue 4
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00585-998-0388-z
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00585-998-0388-z
30 Apr 1998
30 Apr 1998

Magnetopause stand-off distance in dependence on the magnetosheath and solar wind parameters

M. I. Pudovkin, B. P. Besser, and S. A. Zaitseva

Abstract. A model of the magnetosheath structure proposed in a recent paper from the authors is extended to estimate the magnetopause stand-off distance from solar wind data. For this purpose, the relationship of the magnetopause location to the magnetosheath and solar wind parameters is studied. It is shown that magnetopause erosion may be explained in terms of the magnetosheath magnetic field penetration into the magnetosphere. The coefficient of penetration (the ratio of the magnetospheric magnetic field depression to the intensity of the magnetosheath magnetic field Bmz=–Bmsin2Θ/2, is estimated and found approximately to equal 1. It is shown that having combined a magnetosheath model presented in an earlier paper and the magnetosheath field penetration model presented in this paper, it is possible to predict the magnetopause stand-off distance from solar wind parameters.

Key words. Magnetospheric physics · Magnetopause · Cusp and boundary layers-Magnetosheath