HR: 0830h
AN: SM31C-1130    [PDF]
TI: MHD Simulations of the Magnetosphere of Uranus: Successful Comparison With Voyager 2
AU: * T\'oth, G
EM: gtoth@umich.edu
AF: Center for Space Environment Modeling, University of Michigan, Space Research Building, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2143 United States
AU: * T\'oth, G
EM: gtoth@umich.edu
AF: Department of Atomic Physics, E\"otv\"os University, Pazmany setany 1/A, Budapest, 1117 Hungary
AU: Kovacs, D
EM: reticulum@freemail.hu
AF: Department of Atomic Physics, E\"otv\"os University, Pazmany setany 1/A, Budapest, 1117 Hungary
AU: Hansen, K C
EM: kenhan@umich.edu
AF: Center for Space Environment Modeling, University of Michigan, Space Research Building, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2143 United States
AU: Gombosi, T I
EM: tamas@umich.edu
AF: Center for Space Environment Modeling, University of Michigan, Space Research Building, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2143 United States
AB: We have successfully simulated the magnetosphere of Uranus for the time period of the Voyager 2 flyby in January 1986. Based on the Voyager measurements, a self-consistent numerical solution is obtained with the parallel block adaptive 3D MHD code BATSRUS. By comparing corotating steady state solutions and fully time dependent 3D simulations with the Voyager data we show that the magnetosphere of Uranus at the time of the flyby can be regarded as stationary relative to the frame corotating with the planet. We obtained excellent agreement with the observed magnetic field along the whole path of the flyby, which includes the close by offset dipole field as well as several current sheet crossings in the tail. The location of the bow shock and the magnetopause also agree to high accuracy. We are confident that our numerical solution is a good representation of the 3 dimensional magnetosphere of Uranus during the flyby. The numerical solution shows a twisted magnetotail and field lines are also stretched due to the flow of plasma in the magnetotail. The time dependent simulations were carried out with an explicit-implicit time integration scheme, while stationary solutions were obtained with the local time stepping scheme. Even with these advanced numerical schemes the time dependent simulation required a full day on 30 CPU-s.
DE: 2740 Magnetospheric configuration and dynamics
DE: 2753 Numerical modeling
DE: 2756 Planetary magnetospheres (5443, 5737, 6030)
DE: 5737 Magnetospheres (2756)
DE: 6293 Uranus
SC: SPA - Magnetospheric Physics [SM]
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting