Shaped more like a teardrop, the magnetosphere is not actually a sphere, but has a long “tail” extending away from the Sun. The magnetosphere extends about 70,000 kilometers in the direction of the Sun and on the opposite side the magnetosphere’s tail stretches out many millions of kilometers.

The magnetosphere, however, is a dynamically active region. Under the influence of the solar wind, which is neither homogeneous nor stationary, the shape of the magnetosphere constantly varies.

Scientists at the Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy (BIRA-IASB) study this vast magnetic system to gain a clear insight and understanding into the mechanisms that control this environment. Their aim is to better predict the phenomena that can influence the characteristics of this environment, a kind of “space weather” forecasting. In extreme cases this environment can interfere with human activities, for example causing unwanted effects on spacecraft situated in this region of near-Earth space.