Fig. 11

Simulation of the interactions of solar wind with the Earth’s magnetosphere. A plane perpendicular to the solar ecliptic (xz plane) is depicted. Earth is denoted by the white circle. Nearly vertical black contours on the left of the image indicate the solar wind magnetic field, whereas curved black lines—one or two ends of which are rooted on Earth—indicate the Earth’s magnetospheric field following a dynamic equilibrium with the solar wind. Magnetic reconnection and other fluid dynamical and MHD processes play critical roles in determining the impact of stellar magnetized winds and storms on planetary magnetospheres and atmospheres. These processes can lead to atmospheric mass loss or injection (via plasma flows through reconnected field lines), and over long timescales can influence planetary habitability. The above simulation was performed using CESSI-SPIM (Das et al. 2019)