Abstract
ALTHOUGH surveys have been made with magnetometers on space-vehicles we still know very little about the geomagnetic field at great distances from the Earth. For example, it is not known to what extent the magnetosphere at a distance of 10 Earth radii rotates with the Earth; also it is not known whether the distant field is distributed symmetrically or asymmetrically about the Earth. There are good reasons for believing that the topological nature of the distant field is determined by the relative motion of the interplanetary medium; also the topology of the field in turn governs much of the physics of the Earth's immediate interplanetary environment and indeed may account for such phenomena as the aurora and the gegenschein1. It seems that if ‘space geophysics’ is to advance beyond its present state of theoretical speculation it is essential that we first learn the nature and character of the geomagnetic field at distances beyond 5 Earth radii.
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Harrison, E. R., Geophys. J. (to be published).
Harrison, E. R., Geophys. J. (to be published).
Christofilos, N. C., et al., J. Geophys. Res., 64, 865 (1959).
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HARRISON, E. Determination of the Nature of the Earth's Distant Magnetic Field. Nature 193, 359 (1962). https://doi.org/10.1038/193359a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/193359a0
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