HR: 0830h
AN: SM51A-08    [Abstracts]
TI: Solar Wind Entry and Plasma Sheet Formation in the Magnetosphere Using a Global Unstructured Hybrid Simulation Model
AU: * Kazeminezhad, F
EM: farzad@isr.us
AF: Institute for Scientific Research, Inc., 2500 Fairmont Avenue, Suite 734, Fairmont, WV 26555-2720
AU: Lui, A T
EM: Tony.Lui@jhuapl.edu
AF: Applied Physics Laboratory, Johns Hopkins University,, Laurel, Md 20723
AB: The transport of the solar wind energy and momentum into the inner magnetosphere, particularly the sheet region is investigated using a 2½/ dimensional hybrid model of particle ions and fluid electrons [1] % kazem on a finite element multi-resolution mesh. The model resolves to the magnetohydrodynamic limit by the inclusion of the finite ion larmor radius and inertial length. The model is first tested by initializing a dipole at equilibirum with a flow subjected to an incoming solar wind with either a northward or southward IMF. The test includes generation of the steady state shock by examining the density and temperature contour, shaded as well as one dimensional cuts in the equatorial plane. Further tests include observation of dayside reconnections from the magnetic vector potential plots when the incoming IMF points soutward; those are compared with the cases in which the incoming IMF points northward as a means to examine both the numerical dissipation impacts on the reconnection rates as well as impacts on particle trajectories and bulk flow motion in the vicinity of the reconnection regions. These empirical observations of the dayside reconnections are significant as no classical resistivity is employed in the hybrid model. After the initial tests, the trajectories of a certain percentage of the solar wind particles from hundreds of Earth radii upstream to hundreds downstream are followed by storing their time history. The time history reveals ions which can penetrate into the sheet region, and ions which get trapped in the closed field lines and subsequently reflect as well as ions which penetrate the polar cusp region and get deflected. The correlation of the particle velocities with the ambient flow and field fluctuations are used to determine locally the nature of the particle interaction with its ambient medium in their long paths. Throughout this work animations of the simulaions as well as other data will be presented.
DE: 2716 Energetic particles, precipitating
DE: 2720 Energetic particles, trapped
DE: 2753 Numerical modeling
DE: 2784 Solar wind/magnetosphere interactions
DE: 2799 General or miscellaneous
SC: SPA-Magnetospheric Physics [SM]
MN: 2005 Joint Assembly