He Earth’s magnetic field is a force invisible but crucial that protects our planet of radiation solar and allows the existence of life as we know it. This natural shield is formed thanks to the movement of iron melted in the outer core of the Earth. This iron, when moving, generates electric flowand these currents create the magnetic field through a process known as the dynamo effect. The rotation of the Land contributes to this movement, ensuring that the magnetic field is always active.
This magnetic field is not uniform and It has several complex features, one of which is the so-called magnetic tail. The magnetic tail is formed in the part of the field magnetic which is opposite the Sunon the night side of the planet. When the solar wind, a stream of charged particles emanating from the Suncollides with the magnetic field of the Landpart of this field is stretch and shape a long line that extends in the opposite direction to the Sun. This structure plays an essential role in the interaction of the Earth with outer space.
One of the phenomena most interesting things that happen in the magnetic tail are the reconnections magnetic. This process occurs when the magnetic field lines that extend into space separate and then rejoin, releasing a large amount of energy in the form of heat and accelerated particles. Are reconnections are responsible for many space events, such as northern and southern lightsWhat are they visible in the regions polar of the Land.
In 2015the POT launched the mission Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) to study these reconnection processes in detail. The MMS mission consists of four identical satellites that fly in formation and collect data simultaneously from different points in the magnetosphere of the Earth, the region dominated by the field magnetic land. These satellites have provided an unprecedented insight into how occur the reconnections magnetic and how they affect the magnetosphere and Earth’s atmosphere.
One of the observations further interesting of the mission MMS happened in 2017when satellites detected signals from a magnetic reconnection on the magnetic tail without the usual signs of a substorm magnetic. Normally, reconnections in the magnetotail are associated with strong disturbances in the magnetic field. magnetic and currents intense electric currents, known as substorms. But in this case particularno such perturbations were observed, leaving the baffled scientists.
To investigate this mystery, the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in Texas has started a project in collaboration with the NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. This project aims to better understand the conditions that lead to these magnetic reconnections without substorms. The researchers are using data collected by satellites MMS to perform detailed simulations of the Earth’s magnetic field. By comparing these simulations with real observations, they hope to discover new information about the dynamic of the magnetic tail and its behavior during reconnections.
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