Laboratory Simulation of the Solar Wind Interaction with Planetary Atmospheres

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Birkeland in 1908 was the first to introduce the famous terrella experiment which simulated some of the features of the magnetosphere in a controlled laboratory environment. Utilizing electron beams, this first terrella experiment supported his auroral investigations. This grant is for terrella experiments of the following studies: 1) global structures of the earth's magnetotail, 2) large scale field-aligned polar currents, and 3) temporal variations of fields with an emphasis on fluctuations. An intense spherical dipole field will be used as a model earth. A high density cold plasma injected from inside the sphere will surround the model earth, simulating the ionosphere. This model earth will then be exposed to a moderate density magnetized plasma beam produced by a large plasma gun, simulating the solar wind. To achieve the proposed objectives, various computer-aided diagnostics for particles, fields, currents, and waves will be used to obtain and analyze the comprehensive data.