Magnetohydrodynamic simulations of the magnetopauses of Saturn, Jupiter and the Earth

We use global magnetohydrodynamic simulations to compare the responses of Saturn, Jupiter and the Earth to the solar wind. We investigate the magnetospheric boundaries in the presence of dayside reconnection and also find waves on the boundary that are consistent with the Kelvin-Helmholtz (K-H) instability. At the Earth and Jupiter reconnection erodes the dayside magnetopause but there is little erosion at Saturn. The waves at Earth are caused by solar wind velocity shear. At Saturn the solar wind velocity shear combines with rotating Kronian plasma to create the waves. At Jupiter the boundary is unstable because of rotating Jovian flows.