巨行星空间环境研究进展

Recent advances in giant planetary space environments

太阳系八大行星分为类地行星和巨行星,巨行星不仅体积和质量大,其磁场也相对更强.土星的磁矩大约是地球的600倍,而木星的磁矩则有地球的20000倍之大.土星和木星巨大的磁矩也让其拥有比地球大很多的巨型磁层空间.等离子体在巨行星的磁层空间中受到强大的电磁力而产生复杂的加速和输运过程,持续产生空间能量物质扰动.本文将回顾巨行星磁层空间的能量物质循环基本图像、辐射带高能物理过程、磁层电离层耦合过程以及巨行星磁层空间的关键基本等离子体物理过程,尤其结合中国学者在这一领域的最新研究进展进行介绍.

Among the eight solar system planets,Jupiter and Saturn are the two most giant planets,which also have the most prominent magnetic moments.Comparing to the Earth dipole magnetic field,the magnetic moment of Saturn is about 600 times larger while Jupiter is about 20000 times larger.The extremely large magnetic moments of giant planets sustain giant planetary magnetospheres,trapping energetic particles with constant electromagnetic perturbations.In this article,we will review the basic pictures of mass and energy circulations in giant planetary space environments,energetic plasma processes in radiation belt,magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling processes and fundamental plasma processes in magnetospheres.