Waves on the boundary of our magnetic shield, the magnetosphere, act as a source of electrical currents in space that flow between outer space and the ionised top of our atmosphere. We develop a simple numerical model of how these waves couple to different regions of geospace to determine their likely impacts in the context of space weather and how these vary with conditions. We find the waves’ impacts can be significant, though are typically highly localised.

The boundary of Earth's magnetic field, the magnetopause, deflects and reacts to the solar wind, the energetic particles emanating from the Sun. We find that certain types of solar wind favour the occurrence of deviations between the magnetopause locations observed by spacecraft and those predicted by models. In addition, the turbulent region in front of the magnetopause, the foreshock, has a large influence on the location of the magnetopause and thus on the accuracy of the model predictions.

In our study, we looked at the boundary between the Earth's magnetic field and the interplanetary magnetic field emitted by the Sun, called the magnetopause. While other studies focus on the magnetopause motion near Earth's Equator, we have studied it in polar regions. The motion of the magnetopause is faster towards the Earth than towards the Sun. We also found that the occurrence of unusual magnetopause locations is due to similar solar influences in the equatorial and polar regions.