Abstract
The Earth’s external magnetic field plays a key role in space physics. This arises from its strong interaction with charged particles, resulting in a number of fascinating phenomena. Among these are the capture of energetic particles in the Earth’s radiation belt and the striated configuration of the aurora. Furthermore, the conductivity of the ionosphere is substantially modified by the magnetic field and important solar-terrestrial relations are based on the interaction of the solar wind with the magnetosphere. The large-scale structure of the geomagnetic field and its associated plasma populations are described in the following. In this context it is appropriate to distinguish between the near-Earth and the distant geomagnetic field. As an introduction to the topic, we first review some fundamentals of magnetostatic theory.
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© 2004 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Prölss, G.W. (2004). Magnetosphere. In: Physics of the Earth’s Space Environment. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-97123-5_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-97123-5_5
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-05979-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-97123-5
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