Magnetospheric dynamics
The arrival at the Earth’s orbit of complex interplanetary structures, such as interplanetary magnetic clouds, which originate on the Sun during coronal mass ejections (CME), and high speed solar wind streams, is geoeffective in producing major disturbances in the magnetosphere such as storms and substorms.
Particular topics which are studied are: the effects of the impact of the discontinuities associated to magnetic clouds and corotating interaction regions on the magnetospheric-ionospheric current systems.
Recent papers:
• Villante, U. and M. Piersanti, Sudden Impulses in the magnetosphere and at ground, in Exploring the Solar Wind, In Tech Open Access Library, 399, 2012.
• Villante, U. and M. Piersanti, On the Propagation of Sudden Impulses through the magnetosphere: the implications of a simple geometrical model, J. Atm. Solar-Terr.
Phys.,dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jastp.2013.08.015, 2013.
• Villante, U., Le Relazioni Sole-Terra e lo Space Weather, Rendiconti Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, 2013 (in pubbl.).