Earth Magnetosphere & Magnetosheath Jet FAC Explorer

🌌 Dataset Background

This visualization platform is developed by Richard Barker (AIRI) using 3D Global Hybrid-PIC simulation data produced by Jin Guo and Quanming Lu (University of Science and Technology of China - USTC), openly archived on the Science Data Bank (ScienceDB) under DOI 10.57760/sciencedb.space.03597 in accordance with FAIR data sharing principles.

⚡ What is a Magnetosheath Jet?

Magnetosheath jets are localized, high-dynamic-pressure plasma pulses (dynamic pressure ratio P_dyn ≥ 2–5 × P_dyn,sw) that form downstream of Earth's quasi-parallel bow shock. When they traverse the magnetosheath and collide with the magnetopause, they cause significant boundary indentations (ΔX ≈ 1.8 R_E).

🔄 How Field-Aligned Currents (FAC) Are Generated

The jet collision creates intense velocity shear (∇ × V) and localized pressure gradients at the magnetopause. This generates intense Birkeland Field-Aligned Currents (J_∥ = (J · B) / B) that propagate along geomagnetic field lines directly into Earth's northern and southern polar ionospheres (65°–78° Magnetic Latitude), causing transient auroral brightenings and traveling convection vortices.

🛰️ Virtual Spacecraft In-Situ Verification

The virtual probe tracks synthetic magnetometer vectors (B) and fast plasma moments matching observations from NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS-1) and THEMIS spacecraft skimming the dayside boundary.

🏛️ FAIR Attribution & Citation

Corresponding author: dr.richard.barker@gmail.com. Primary data: Jin Guo (USTC), Science Data Bank (2026).