HR: 1330h
AN: SH13B-01    [Abstracts]
TI: Modeling of the Solar Wind with a Tetrahedral MHD Algorithm
AU: * Schnack, D D
EM: Dalton.D.Schnack@saic.com
AF: Science Applications International Corporation, 10260 Campus Point Dr., San Diego, CA 92121-1578 United States
AU: Lionello, R
EM: Roberto.Lionello@saic.com
AF: Science Applications International Corporation, 10260 Campus Point Dr., San Diego, CA 92121-1578 United States
AU: Riley, P
EM: Pete.Riley@saic.com
AF: Science Applications International Corporation, 10260 Campus Point Dr., San Diego, CA 92121-1578 United States
AB: MH4D (Magnetohydrodynamics on a TETRAhedral Domain) is a numerical algorithm to solve the resistive and viscous MHD equations on an unstructured mesh of tetrahedra. It is device independent and runs on desktop computers as well as massively-parallel systems. The formulation on an unstructured grid allows the computational domain to be of arbitrary shape and the resolution to be increased in the regions of physical interest. Consequently, a wide range of spatial scales can be studied at the same time, for example active regions can be embedded in the large scale corona. A variational formulation of the differential operators ensures accuracy and the preservation of the analytical properties of the operators (∇ · B=0), and self-adjointness of the resistive and viscous operators. The combined semi-implicit treatment of the waves and implicit formulation of the diffusive operators can accommodate the wide range of time scales present in the solar corona. The capability of mesh refinement and coarsening is also included. We will present a solution of the supersonic solar wind obtained with our model.
DE: 2164 Solar wind plasma
SC: SPA-Solar and Heliospheric Physics [SH]
MN: 2005 Joint Assembly