The earths magnetosphere protects the earth from high-energy charged particles coming from the sun. Some charged particles are deflected by the magnetosphere, while others become trapped and produce the aurora. This presentation shows a 3-dimensional model of the magnetosphere. The features that it highlights are flat ribbons representing the paths of charged particles deflected by the magnetosphere, triangular ribbons representing magnetic field lines, and colored surfaces representing constant values of magnetic force.

This educational brief provides a summary of the historical development of our understanding of magnetism and magnetic fields, including a listing of many of the contributions of individual scientists. Links to additional information are embedded in the text.

This series of animations compares a two-dimensional global hybrid simulation with an magnetohydrodynamic model of the interaction of the solar wind with the Earths magnetosphere.

This series of animations compares a two-dimensional global hybrid simulation with an magneto-hydrodynamic model of the interaction of the solar wind with the Earths magnetosphere.

IMAGE-HENA observes the oxygen ions, expelled from the Earths atmosphere by the solar wind, return to the polar regions via the magnetic field.

IMAGE-HENA observes the oxygen ions, expelled from the Earths atmosphere by the solar wind, return to the polar regions via the magnetic field.

Electrically charged oxygen atoms (green) are ejected into the magnetosphere due to heating in the ionosphere. The red thermometer displays the intensity of the solar wind (dynamic pressure) measured by the Geotail spacecraft. The yellow thermometer represents the source intensity or hydrogen counts as measured by IMAGE-LENA.

This animation presents correlated measurements and model data for an impact of a magnetic cloud originating from the Sun on the Earths magnetosphere on October 18-20, 1995.

This document describes the features and properties of Earth's magnetosphere. Topics include the magnetosphere's shape, descriptions of its features, the Van Allen Belts, particle motions, and magnetic storms. Links to illustrations and tables are embedded on the text.

A view of a computer-generated model of the Earth's magnetosphere. Semi-transparent surfaces represent particle density (red is high, blue is low) and silvery tubes represent the magnetic field lines. In this particular model, the solar wind has an ambient density of 8.35 particles-cm^3. The isosurfaces are then red (>17 particles-cm^3), yellow (>12 particles-cm^3), green (>8.6 particles-cm^3) and blue (<1.0 particle-cm^3).

A view of a computer-generated model of the Earth's magnetosphere. Semi-transparent surfaces represent particle density (red is high, blue is low), the silvery tube represent magnetic field lines and the yellow ribbons represent the paths of charged solar wind particles. In this particular model, the solar wind has an ambient density of 8.35 particles-cm^3. The isosurfaces are then red (>17 particles-cm^3), yellow (>12 particles-cm^3), green (>8.6 particles-cm^3) and blue (<1.0 particle-cm^3).

A depiction of some of the Earths (blue) and the Suns (white) magnetic field lines from a global magnetospheric simulation. The green hemisphere is the inner boundary of the simulation.

Students explore Mars and Jupiter, the fourth and fifth planets from the Sun. They learn some of the unique characteristics of these planets. They also learn how engineers help us learn about these planets with the design and development of telescopes, deep space antennas, spacecraft and planetary rovers.

Learn more about the Northern Lights and demonstrate magnetic fields and north and south poles.

This educational brief provides an overview of the layers of the atmosphere, the effects of the solar wind upon them, and how these effects are mitigated by Earth's magnetic field. It also describes OMNIWeb, an internet-based data retrieval interface for obtaining datasets on solar energetic particles.

Visitors to this site can read about sunspots, solar wind, solar flares, and coronal mass ejections Topics include how they interact with the Earth's magnetic field, auroras, and possible damaging effects of geomagnetic storms on satellites and ground-based technology. A list of "Would You Believe" factoids is included.

Tour of the Earths magnetosphere generated for Live from the Aurora. This viz pulls out from the Earth and fades in components of the magnetosphere.

ViSBARD (Visual System for Browsing, Analysis, and Retrieval of Data) is a data analysis application that brings together measurements from collections of spacecraft near the Earth or throughout the heliosphere In this visualization created from ViSBARD screenshots, we see the magnetic field as measured from six different satellites. The position of each spacecraft is marked by a small color glyph (ACE = yellow, Cluster = dark blue, Geotail = green, GOES 10 = red, Polar = light blue, Wind = purple). The direction of the arrow signifies the direction of the magnetic field while the color represents the intensity (red being the highest, blue the lowest). The magnetic pole of the Earth is in yellow, and it rotates properly as the animation proceeds. This view of the magnetic storm shows highly disturbed fields at geosynchronous orbit (GOES), many crossings of the magnotail current sheet where the field changes sign and points at the opposite pole of the Earth, close encounters with the Earth (large red fields that are truncated to keep the arrows from becoming huge), and the entry from the back of the picture of Wind and Geotail through the bow shock (wire-frame) and magnetopause (sometimes visible as a transparent surface).