1. 3 Between the bow shock and the magnetopause the solar wind is greatly decelerated.

2. 6 When the solar wind is strong the magnetopause retreats to about 50 R J upwind.

3. IMAGE (Imager for Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global Exploration) is a NASA Medium Explorers mission that studied the global response of the Earth's magnetosphere to changes in the solar wind.

4. Recent studies indicate, however, that the magnetosheath is a dynamic region of turbulent plasma flow that may play an important role in the structure of the bow shock and the magnetopause, and may help to dictate the flow of energetic particles across those boundaries.