physics.space-ph papers

Space physics explores the dynamic environment surrounding our planet and the wider solar system, focusing on how charged particles, magnetic fields, and solar winds interact with celestial bodies. This field helps us understand phenomena like auroras, space weather that can disrupt satellites, and the fundamental behavior of plasma in the vacuum of space. It bridges the gap between astronomy and particle physics, revealing the invisible forces that shape our cosmic neighborhood.

At Gist.Science, we process every new preprint in this category as it appears on arXiv, ensuring you get immediate access to the latest research. For each paper, we provide both a detailed technical summary for experts and a plain-language explanation that makes complex concepts understandable for everyone. Below are the latest space physics papers from arXiv, curated and simplified for your reading.

Multi-instrument constraints on a hemispherically asymmetric positive ionospheric storm in the 60-180 deg E sector during the 12-13 November 2025 geomagnetic storm

This study utilizes a coordinated multi-instrument dataset to characterize a hemispherically asymmetric positive ionospheric storm during the November 2025 geomagnetic event, revealing that the stronger Northern Hemisphere enhancement was driven by density increases rather than peak-height uplift, while compositional changes and traveling disturbances contributed to the observed inter-hemispheric differences.

Pan Xiong, Jianghe Chen, Xuhui Shen, Tong Liu, Angelo De Santis, Sergey Pulinets2026-03-17🔬 physics

Dynamics of the Upwind Heliosphere Due to Data-Driven, Solar Wind and Magnetic Field Variations and Implications for Wave Propagation into the Very Local Interstellar Medium

This paper presents a time-dependent, data-driven model of the heliosphere that reveals how solar-cycle variations generate recurring fast magnetosonic waves, which drive a highly oscillatory termination shock, transmit into the interstellar medium to explain Voyager pressure observations, and highlight the insufficiency of time-dependent effects alone to account for the sub-Alfvénic region ahead of the heliopause.

Chika (Boston University), M. Opher (Boston University), E. Powell (Boston University), S. Du (Boston University), J. M. Sokół (Southwest Research Institute), J. D. Richardson (Massachusetts Inst (…)2026-03-17🔭 astro-ph

Automatic Characterization of Mid-latitude Multiple Ionospheric Plasma Structures from All-sky Airglow Images using Deep Learning Technique

This study presents a fully automated deep learning pipeline utilizing YOLOv8 and BoT-SORT to characterize the propagation parameters of mid-latitude ionospheric plasma structures from all-sky airglow images, demonstrating superior efficiency and reliability compared to previous semi-automatic methods for handling large datasets.

Jeevan Upadhyaya, Satarupa Chakrabarti, Rahul Rathi, Virendra Yadav, Dipjyoti Patgiri, Gaurav Dixit, M. V. Sunil Krishna, Sumanta Sarkhel2026-03-17🔬 physics

An angular-momentum preserving dissipative model for the point-mass N -body problem

This paper proposes an angular-momentum preserving dissipative model for the N-body problem that reduces to homographic equations for central configurations, analyzes the resulting two-body dynamics via Poincaré compactification, and demonstrates that the dissipation does not affect periapsis precession.

Matheus Lazarotto, Clodoaldo Ragazzo2026-03-16🌀 nlin

CLARE: Classification-based Regression for Electron Temperature Prediction

The paper introduces CLARE, a classification-based regression machine learning model that significantly improves electron temperature prediction accuracy and provides uncertainty estimates by transforming the continuous output space into discrete intervals using AKEBONO satellite data.

Michael Liang, Blake DeHaas, Naomi Maruyama, Xiangning Chu, Takumi Abe, Koh-Ichiro Oyama2026-03-16🔬 physics

Weibel Instability in Collisionless Plasmas Across Astrophysical and Laboratory Shocks

This paper presents a comprehensive cold-fluid analysis of the Weibel instability across non-relativistic and relativistic, single- and multi-species regimes, deriving scaling laws that accurately predict filament spacing and magnetic field saturation in both laboratory laser experiments and MMS spacecraft observations of astrophysical shocks.

Vivek Shrivastav, Mani K Chettri, Hemam D Singh, Britan Singh, Rupak Mukherjee2026-03-16🔬 physics

Spacecraft wakes in the solar wind

This paper analyzes spacecraft wake signatures in the solar wind using Cluster satellite data to characterize their electrostatic potential structure, provide statistical examples, and demonstrate a method for removing these signatures from electric field measurements.

Anders I. Eriksson, Yuri Khotyaintsev, Per-Arne Lindqvist2026-03-16🔬 physics

Post-processing Probabilistic Forecasts of the Solar Wind by Data Mining Similar Scenarios

This paper presents a novel data mining method that generates calibrated probabilistic forecasts of solar wind speed by comparing baseline model predictions and recent observations against historical analogs, thereby improving uncertainty quantification and reducing root-mean-square error compared to traditional deterministic models.

Daniel E. da Silva, Yash Parlikar, Shaela I. Jones, Charles N. Arge2026-03-13🔭 astro-ph

Strong Prevalence of Hammerhead Velocity Distributions Close to the Heliospheric Current Sheet

This study statistically analyzes 20 Parker Solar Probe encounters to reveal that "hammerhead" proton velocity distributions, characterized by anisotropic beams with a constricted gap from the core, predominantly occur near the Heliospheric Current Sheet, suggesting they serve as key diagnostics for energization processes associated with the HCS and the solar wind.

Srijan Bharati Das, Jaye L. Verniero, Samuel T. Badman, Robert Alexander, Michael Terres, Federico Fraschetti, Kristoff W. Paulson, Fernando Carcaboso, Tatiana Niembro, Roberto Livi, Davin Larson, Ali (…)2026-03-13🔭 astro-ph

The diagnostic temperature discrepancy as evidence for non-Maxwellian coronal electrons

This paper argues that a persistent, cycle-invariant discrepancy between radio brightness temperatures and hydrostatic scale-height modeling in the quiet solar corona provides evidence for non-Maxwellian, kappa-distributed electron velocity distributions with kappa values of approximately 2–3, rather than the turbulent scattering or standard thermal equilibrium models previously assumed.

Victor Edmonds2026-03-12🔭 astro-ph

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