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Peculiarities of the Orbital Motion of Submicron Particles in the Earth's Plasmasphere

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Abstract

On the basis of numerical calculations of trajectories, the peculiarities of motion of submicron-sized particles in the Earth's plasmasphere are investigated. The most important result of these investigations is the found possibility of long-term residence of a microparticle in the Earth's vicinity. This effect is a result of the interaction of the electric charge, induced on a microparticle, with the magnetic field of the Earth. It is shown that the effect of microparticle capture by the Earth's magnetic field takes place in the case when the microparticles having a dimension of about 10–2 μm and made of a material having high yield of photoemission are injected into the plasmasphere at altitudes of about several thousand kilometers and also in the case when the microparticles with a dimension of about 10–3 μm and made of a material having low yield of photoemission are injected into the plasmasphere at altitudes of about 15 000–20 000 km and are moving close to the equatorial plane.

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Kolesnikov, E.K. Peculiarities of the Orbital Motion of Submicron Particles in the Earth's Plasmasphere. Cosmic Research 39, 92–97 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1002848114220

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