Abstract:
Experiments using a powerful CO$_2$ amplifier were performed with the aim of developing a technique for simulating a space explosion in the magnetosphere of the Earth and other planets under laboratory conditions using laser plasma clouds. The amplifier radiation with an energy of about 300 J and a pulse duration of about 10$^{-7}$ sec focused on a Caprolon target of 4 mm diameter produced an exploding plasma in a dipole magnetic field with a characteristic dimension of 15 cm and a magnetic moment of 1.1 $\cdot$ 10$^7$ Gs $\cdot$ cm$^3$. The paper presents preliminary results of simulating a space explosion under quasitrapping conditions, where the energy of the explosion is much lower than the geomagnetic energy and the explosion point is located in the equatorial plane at a distance of two Earth's radii.