This open session traditionally invites presentations on all aspects of the Earth’s magnetospheric physics, including magnetosphere and its boundary layers, magnetosheath, bow shock and foreshock as well as magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling. This session is suitable for any contribution which does not fit more naturally into one of the specialised sessions.

Transient solar wind phenomena and processes in the foreshock, at the bow shock, and in the magnetosheath are all drivers of significant downstream effects at the magnetopause, inside the magnetosphere, in the ionosphere, and on ground. These phenomena encompass, but are not restricted to, interplanetary magnetic field discontinuities and related hot flow anomalies or foreshock bubbles, foreshock cavities, cavitons and related spontaneous hot flow anomalies, as well as SLAMS and magnetosheath jets. The local effects of these phenomena may include severe changes in local plasma parameters, e.g., heating, compression or expansion, and deflection of plasma. Further downstream, they may be associated with significant magnetopause dynamics including magnetic reconnection, inner-magnetospheric waves and changes in the radiation belt electron populations, geomagnetic variations, ionospheric flow enhancements, particle precipitation, and auroral forms.
We invite contributions focusing on these upstream phenomena, their (downstream) effects, and the coupling between them, i.e., the transport of mass, momentum, and energy, across and between the bow shock and magnetopause boundaries, not only at Earth but also at other planets and solar system bodies. We encourage the presentation of latest results based on in-situ measurements (including the Geotail, Cluster, THEMIS/ARTEMIS, MMS, and Van Allen Probes), on ground-based observations (e.g., magnetometers, radars, riometers, and all-sky imagers), as well as on numerical simulations and theoretical modelling. Presentations of studies using any combination of the above approaches are particularly welcome.

Magnetic reconnection is a fundamental process in space, astrophysics and laboratory plasmas, by which magnetic energy was converted into plasma energy in an explosive manner. It plays a key role for many explosive events in space, the coupling between the solar wind and the terrestrial as well as other planets’ magnetospheres, and the interaction between the solar wind and the atmosphere/ionosphere of the planets without global magnetic field. Thanks to recent spacecraft missions, e.g, Cluster, THEMIS, MMS, Maven, Cassini, MESSENGER, etc, and the development of the computing simulations, fruitful new findings have been achieved in the last several years. Furthermore, many major issues on reconnection remain. For example, How the reconnection is triggered in space, how the energy is distributed, microphysics in the electron diffusion region and the separatrix region, and so on. This session invites presentations on all of the aspects associated with magnetic reconnection from the spacecraft measurements, the simulations, laboratory experiments and the theoretical analysis.

Wave-particle interactions represent a unique mechanism of an energy transfer in the nearly collisionless plasma environment of the Earth's inner magnetosphere, affecting ultimately distribution functions of energetic particles trapped in the Van Allen radiation belts. Their evaluation, along with the quantification of the resulting particle acceleration, transport, and loss, is thus crucial for understanding the dynamics of the radiation belts. Considering that these processes are mainly driven by the solar wind, the ability to accurately forecast the radiation belts is further dependent on understanding their coupling with external regions (e.g. solar wind, foreshock, magnetosheath), and the processes that dictate their global dynamics. The aim of this session is the dynamics of energetic particle populations in the radiation belts, wave-particle interactions in the Earth's inner magnetosphere, as well as generation mechanisms and properties of involved electromagnetic emissions (EMIC, chorus, hiss, fast magnetosonic waves, etc.) in various frequency ranges (ULF, ELF, VLF). Theoretical and model contributions, as well as observational studies using data from recent satellite missions (ERG-Arase, Cluster, MMS, THEMIS, Van Allen Probes, etc.) and ground-based instruments are encouraged.

The Earth’s ionosphere is composed of dense and cold plasma that includes heavy ions such as He+ and O+. This plasma can directly escape to the magnetosphere following the Earth's magnetic field lines in the polar regions, i.e., ionospheric outflows, and forms the plasmasphere in the low and mid latitude regions. The ionosphere is therefore an important source that provides significant amounts of plasma to the magnetosphere and has a profound impact on the global magnetosphere-ionosphere dynamics. During times of increased geomagnetic activity, this plasma can dominate over the plasma entry from the solar wind. They mass-load the magnetosphere and modify its temperature, and as a consequence the global structure and properties of the plasma sheet, the reconnection processes, and the local properties of the plasma.

Tracking the ionospheric ions in the magnetosphere can also provide clues regarding the generalized ionospheric outflow process and its role in controlling the ionosphere-magnetosphere system. Therefore, knowledge of the ionospheric ion contribution to the near-Earth plasma together with their differential transport and acceleration throughout the magnetosphere system provides a unique insight into the connection between the macro-scale dynamics and micro-scale processes that govern this region.

Recent observations from numerous missions including Cluster, Van Allen Probes, THEMIS, and MMS and simulations identify the origin, transport, and loss of plasma originating in the ionosphere and transported into the plasmasphere and magnetosphere. This session welcomes presentations on all aspects of the origin, transport and effects on the magnetosphere dynamics of ionospheric plasma. Studies based on observations, theory, simulations or their combination are encouraged.

The complicated and non-linear responses of various plasma populations in the inner magnetosphere are driven by the solar wind and determined by various coupling mechanisms. The inner magnetospheric particle population is driven by the global and local electric and magnetic fields. The Ionosphere serves as a sink of energy and feeds back magnetosphere, as well as provides the source of outflow particles for refilling of the lost magnetospheric particles. Precipitating inner magnetospheric particles cause changes in the ionospheric conductivity and may affect the upper atmospheric chemistry and climate. Dynamics of the plasmasphere, ring current and radiation belts are also coupled by means of currents and fields as well as wave-particle interactions. While the dynamics of outer planets’ magnetospheres are driven by a unique combination of internal coupling processes, the latter have a number of fascinating similarities which make comparative studies particularly interesting.
We invite a broad range of theoretical, modelling, and observational studies focusing on the dynamics of the inner magnetosphere of the Earth and outer planets, including the coupling of the inner magnetosphere and ionosphere and coupling between the solar wind disturbances and various magnetospheric processes. In particular, we encourage presentations using data from MMS, THEMIS, Van Allen Probes, Arase (ERG), Juno and cube-sat missions.

Turbulence, reconnection and shocks are fundamental non-linear processes observed in solar, heliospheric, magnetospheric and laboratory plasmas. These processes are not separate, but rather appear to be interconnected. For instance, a close link exists between reconnection and turbulence. On the one hand the turbulence cascade favors the onset of magnetic reconnection between magnetic islands and, on the other hand, magnetic reconnection is able to trigger turbulence in the reconnection outflows and separatrices. Similarly, shocks may form in collisional and collisionless reconnection processes and can be responsible for turbulence formation, as for instance in the turbulent magnetosheath.

This session welcomes simulations, observational and theoretical works relevant for the study of these non-linear phenomena. Particularly welcome will be works focusing on the link between them in a range of scale going from fluid MHD to kinetic. The topic of this session is relevant for the understanding of solar atmosphere (from the photosphere to the solar wind), interaction of solar wind with planetary magnetospheres, planetary magnetospheric physics and particle acceleration and transport throughout the heliosphere. The session is also relevant to past and present space missions in plasma astrophysics such as Cluster, MMS and Parker Solar Probe.

Public information:
Julia E. Stawarz will give a solicited talk