But until they separate in the magnetic field they are not a current, correct?
That is not correct in Birkeland's cathode model. The high speed solar wind is *already* the result of the current that is flowing from the sun to the heliosphere. That wind is *already* a "current" that is caused/driven by charge separation between the sun and the heliosphere.
It's not always that simple or that obvious in plasma because the conductor isn't "fixed". It also moves and in some cases has a charge of it's own.You need to separate the charges before you have a current.
Relative to a stationary Earth it sure is!Moving a neutral plasma through space is not a current.
Irrelevant as it relates to plasma physics.What next? Throwing a battery through the air is a current?
Birkeland predicted both types of particles based upon his experiments, mostly because he *observed* them in his experiments, or at least their effect (soot on the glass). Today we'd call that process 'sputtering'.Then why is the solar wind neutral, with both sets of charges?
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