How much field-aligned electromagnetic energy flows from the magnetosphere to the ionosphere, at which scales into each hemisphere?

Living Planet Fellowship research project carried out by Ivan Pakhotin. Ivan’s recent published work in magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling (MIC) using the unprecedented Swarm dataset has revealed that Alfven waves play a key role in MIC dynamics, with small scales carrying very significant amounts of energy. His recent preliminary work has further indicated that in fact most …

Using information from ESA’s Swarm satellite constellation, scientists have made a discovery about how energy generated by electrically-charged particles in the solar wind flows into Earth’s atmosphere – surprisingly, more of it heads towards the magnetic north pole than towards the magnetic south pole. Read the full story. This research was supported by the ESA …