Plasma flows, electric fields and currents in the Earth’s ionosphere

当太阳风和嵌入的行星际磁场(IMF)流经地球时，地球磁层(地球周围的磁场区域)中的带电粒子等离子体被驱动成连续运动。这种运动产生的磁层电压产生电流，这些电流沿着磁力线流向离地球仅约100公里的电离层。然后，电流在电离层中水平流动，然后向上返回磁层。从磁层加速进入电离层的电流、电压和高能粒子，不仅对航天员和太空中的GPS系统等卫星电子设备有害，而且还会造成停电，导致地面管道腐蚀和破裂。

As the solar wind and the embedded interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) stream past the Earth, the charged-particle plasma in the Earth’s magnetosphere (the magnetic field region surrounding the Earth) is driven into continuous motion. The magnetospheric voltage generated by such motion produces currents that flow along magnetic field lines to the ionosphere only ~100 km above the Earth. The current then flows horizontally in the ionosphere before returning upward to the magnetosphere. The currents, voltages, and high-energy particles accelerated from the magnetosphere into the ionosphere not only are hazardous to astronauts and satellite electronics such as GPS systems in space, but also cause power blackouts and lead to pipeline corrosion and rupture on the ground.