Figure: A cartoon of a charged solar wind particle interacting with the Earth's magnetosphere

Image 1 Caption: A cartoon of a charged particle from the solar wind interacting with the magnetosphere (which is not spherical) of the Earth (i.e., outer space part of the Earth's magnetic field).

Further explication:

1. Note, the Earth's magnetic field is a dipole magnetic field (somewhat distorted) like that of a bar magnet. However, due to one of the great goofs of Earth science, the north magnetic pole is in the south and the south magnetic pole is in the north.

2. A key fact is that magnetic fields tend to cause charged particles to helix along magnetic field lines. This is because the magnetic force acts perpendicularly to the velocity.

   

3. Image 2 Caption: A cartoon of the solar wind being deflected around the Earth by the Earth's magnetosphere. The deflection, in fact, forms a bow shock.

4. The helixing of charged particles in the Earth's magnetosphere gives rise to the deflection of most of the solar wind around the Earth and this deflection keeps Earth's atmosphere from being at least partially blown away by the solar wind. The charged particles are mostly deflected from the Earth and only some rain down on the atmosphere and mostly just near the Earth's polar regions as the Image 1 indicates.

5. Keywords: bar magnet, bow shock, charged particles, dipole magnetic field, Earth, Earth's magnetic field, Earth's polar regions, helix, magnetic field, magnetic field lines, magnetic force, magnetic poles (magnetic north pole, magnetic south pole), magnetosphere, north magnetic pole, perpendicular, solar wind, south magnetic pole, Van Allen radiation belts, etc.