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How the solar wind affects the Earth's magnetosphere depends
on a number of factors, such as the speed,
density, and temperature of the solar wind
and the strength and orientation of the interplanetary
magnetic field. These quantities are routinely monitored with magnetometers
and charged particle detectors on board spacecraft in Earth orbit or, as
in the case of ACE and SOHO, in orbit around the L1 Lagrangian point.
Color-coded plots of current solar wind conditions, along with other information about geomagnetic activity, are available at the Space Weather page maintained by Andrew Urquhart of the Space Physics and Astronomy Department at Rice University and the Real-time Dst Estimate Web Page provided by the Space Sciences Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley. The color-coding indicates the level of disturbance. |
