Magnetospheres of the Mercury, Earth, Jupiter, and Saturn

Physical phenomena in the magnetospheres of the solar system planets that have intrinsic magnetic fields: Mercury, Earth, Jupiter, and Saturn, are discussed. As demonstrated by the evaluation of the Mercury, Earth, Jupiter, and Saturn magnetopauses, all these surfaces can be well approached by a paraboloids of revolution with different subsolar distances and flaring angles (Alexeev and Belenkaya, Ann Geophys 23:809–826, 2005; Alexeev et al., Geophys Res Lett 33:L08101, 2006; Joy et al., J Geophys Res 107(A10):1309,2002; Kanani et al., J Geophys Res 115:A06207, 2010). Based on this fact a universal model of the planetary magnetosphere is constructed. We choose the planets in the inner magnetospheres of which the magnetic field vectors have been measured by spacecraft magnetometers. Modifications of general model that are applied to the individual planets are considered. The proposed models describe the basic physical processes which are responsible for the structure and dynamics of the magnetospheres. Additionally to the inner planetary field the different magnetospheric sources of magnetic field are included in the model.