Symposium on magnetosheath studies honors John Spreiter

Abstract

Magnetosheaths are intrinsically interesting. Often turbulent and highly structured, they host an enormous variety of phenomena and processes. Our own magnetosheath plays a crucial role in modulating the flow of solar wind mass, energy, and momentum into the Earth's magnetosphere. Gaining a comprehensive understanding of it will be essential to forecasting space weather. Given the nearly bewildering variety of phenomena that occur within magnetosheaths and the wide variety of mechanisms that have been proposed to account for these phenomena, attaining that understanding will not be easy.