Seminar

Giant planet's magnetosphere is a large region of space surrounding it, and the magnetosphere is mainly formed by the interaction between Solar wind and the planet's magnetic field that created by its interior dynamo. Such kind of interaction generates various of desirable phenomenon, the fast rotation of the planet makes the development of the interaction even more complex. Unlike Earth, asymmetries occur because of the effects of rotation in giant planet, which carries plasma flow rotate with the planet, the flow has same direction with Solar wind in dusk side and opposite in dawn side. We could study some of the physical process in the laboratory by modifying conditions, but most of the magnetosphere environment is hard for us to do experiment. However, using computation method to compare different kind of planet's magnetosphere can give us opportunity to study different processes under different interplanetary conditions. We present a global three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulation of Saturn's magnetosphere during different interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) conditions in our work to study the asymmetric behavior of Saturn’s magnetosphere.

Additional information: Mr. Zhiqi ZHENG, lostzzq@connect.hku.hk