The Low-Latitude Boundary Layer: a New Historical Review

By Tim Eastman

NSSDC's Tim Eastman was one of the original discoverers of the magnetosphere's low latitude boundary layer (LLBL), a region just inside the boundary (the "magnetopause") separating the Earth's magnetic fields (the "magnetosphere") from the solar wind flows outside, in the "magnetosheath." The plasma of the LLBL transitions from the lower temperatures and higher densities of the magnetosheath solar wind flow just outside the magnetopause to the less dense but hotter plasma of the bulk of the Earth's magnetosphere, over a distance of 100's to 1000's of kilometers.

A new Monograph of the American Geophysical Union, "Earth's Low Latitude Boundary Layer" has just been issued. The first article contained therein is an historic review by Tim entitled "Historical Review (pre-1980) of Magnetospheric Boundary Layers and the Low Latitude Boundary Layer." Tim welcomes feedback at timothy.eastman@gsfc.nasa.gov