Dungey Cycle

[2] Dungey originally proposed a cyclic behavior of magnetic reconnection between Earth's magnetosphere and flux of solar wind.

This reconnection explained previously observed dynamics within Earth's magnetosphere.

[3] The rate of reconnection at the magnetopause is heavily dependent on the orientation of the interplanetary magnetic field.

Reconnection at the magnetopause occurs at higher rates when there is a stronger southward component to the field.

[3] This allows for solar wind with arbitrarily small shear angles to reconnect at the magnetopause.