1. |
- Chen, Yuxi, et al.
(författare)
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Global Three-Dimensional Simulation of Earth's Dayside Reconnection Using a Two-Way Coupled Magnetohydrodynamics With Embedded Particle-in-Cell Model : Initial Results
- 2017
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Ingår i: Journal of Geophysical Research - Space Physics. - : AMER GEOPHYSICAL UNION. - 2169-9380 .- 2169-9402. ; 122:10, s. 10318-10335
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We perform a three-dimensional (3-D) global simulation of Earth's magnetosphere with kinetic reconnection physics to study the flux transfer events (FTEs) and dayside magnetic reconnection with the recently developed magnetohydrodynamics with embedded particle-in-cell model. During the 1 h long simulation, the FTEs are generated quasi-periodically near the subsolar point and move toward the poles. We find that the magnetic field signature of FTEs at their early formation stage is similar to a "crater FTE," which is characterized by a magnetic field strength dip at the FTE center. After the FTE core field grows to a significant value, it becomes an FTE with typical flux rope structure. When an FTE moves across the cusp, reconnection between the FTE field lines and the cusp field lines can dissipate the FTE. The kinetic features are also captured by our model. A crescent electron phase space distribution is found near the reconnection site. A similar distribution is found for ions at the location where the Larmor electric field appears. The lower hybrid drift instability (LHDI) along the current sheet direction also arises at the interface of magnetosheath and magnetosphere plasma. The LHDI electric field is about 8 mV/m, and its dominant wavelength relative to the electron gyroradius agrees reasonably with Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) observations.
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2. |
- Daldorff, Lars K. S., et al.
(författare)
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Two-way coupling of a global Hall magnetohydrodynamics model with a local implicit particle-in-cell model
- 2014
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Ingår i: Journal of Computational Physics. - : Elsevier BV. - 0021-9991 .- 1090-2716. ; 268, s. 236-254
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Computational models based on a fluid description of the plasma, such as magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) and extended magnetohydrodynamic (XMHD) codes are highly efficient, but they miss the kinetic effects due to the assumptions of small gyro radius, charge neutrality, and Maxwellian thermal velocity distribution. Kinetic codes can properly take into account the kinetic effects, but they are orders of magnitude more expensive than the fluid codes due to the increased degrees of freedom. If the fluid description is acceptable in a large fraction of the computational domain, it makes sense to confine the kinetic model to the regions where kinetic effects are important. This coupled approach can be much more efficient than a pure kinetic model. The speed up is approximately the volume ratio of the full domain relative to the kinetic regions assuming that the kinetic code uses a uniform grid. This idea has been advocated by [1] but their coupling was limited to one dimension and they employed drastically different grid resolutions in the fluid and kinetic models. We describe a fully two-dimensional two-way coupling of a Hall MHD model BATS-R-US with an implicit Particle-in-Cell (PIC) model iPIC3D. The coupling can be performed with identical grid resolutions and time steps. We call this coupled computational plasma model MHD-EPIC (MHD with Embedded PIC regions). Our verification tests show that MHD-EPIC works accurately and robustly. We show a two-dimensional magnetosphere simulation as an illustration of the potential future applications of MHD-EPIC.
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3. |
- Fayolle, E. C., et al.
(författare)
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Protostellar and cometary detections of organohalogens
- 2017
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Ingår i: Nature Astronomy. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2397-3366. ; 1:10, s. 703-708
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Organohalogens, a class of molecules that contain at least one halogen atom bonded to carbon, are abundant on the Earth where they are mainly produced through industrial and biological processes(1). Consequently, they have been proposed as biomarkers in the search for life on exoplanets(2). Simple halogen hydrides have been detected in interstellar sources and in comets, but the presence and possible incorporation of more complex halogen-containing molecules such as organohalogens into planet-forming regions is uncertain(3,4). Here we report the interstellar detection of two isotopologues of the organohalogen CH3Cl and put some constraints on CH3F in the gas surrounding the low-mass protostar IRAS 16293-2422, using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). We also find CH3Cl in the coma of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (67P/C-G) by using the Rosetta Orbiter Spectrometer for Ion and Neutral Analysis (ROSINA) instrument. The detections reveal an efficient pre-planetary formation pathway of organohalogens. Cometary impacts may deliver these species to young planets and should thus be included as a potential abiotical production source when interpreting future organohalogen detections in atmospheres of rocky planets.
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4. |
- Ma, Ying-Juan, et al.
(författare)
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3D global multi-species Hall-MHD simulation of the Cassini T9 flyby
- 2007
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Ingår i: Geophysical Research Letters. - 0094-8276 .- 1944-8007. ; 34:24, s. L24S10-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The wake region of Titan is an important component of Titan's interaction with its surrounding plasma and therefore a thorough understanding of its formation and structure is of primary interest. The Cassini spacecraft passed through the distant downstream region of Titan on 18: 59: 30 UT Dec. 26, 2005, which is referred to as the T9 flyby and provided a great opportunity to test our understanding of the highly dynamic wake region. In this paper we compare the observational data (from the magnetometer, plasma analyzer and Langmuir probe) with numerical results using a 7-species Hall MHD Titan model. There is a good agreement between the observed and modeled parameters, given the uncertainties in plasma measurements and the approximations inherent in the Hall MHD model. Our simulation results also show that Hall MHD model results fit the observations better than the non-Hall MHD model for the flyby, consistent with the importance of kinetic effects in the Titan interaction. Based on the model results, we also identify various regions near Titan where Hall MHD models are applicable.
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5. |
- Toth, Gabor, et al.
(författare)
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Extended magnetohydrodynamics with embedded particle-in-cell simulation of Ganymede's magnetosphere
- 2016
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Ingår i: Journal of Geophysical Research - Space Physics. - : American Geophysical Union (AGU). - 2169-9380 .- 2169-9402. ; 121:2, s. 1273-1293
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We have recently developed a new modeling capability to embed the implicit particle-in-cell (PIC) model iPIC3D into the Block-Adaptive-Tree-Solarwind-Roe-Upwind-Scheme magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) model. The MHD with embedded PIC domains (MHD-EPIC) algorithm is a two-way coupled kinetic-fluid model. As one of the very first applications of the MHD-EPIC algorithm, we simulate the interaction between Jupiter's magnetospheric plasma and Ganymede's magnetosphere. We compare the MHD-EPIC simulations with pure Hall MHD simulations and compare both model results with Galileo observations to assess the importance of kinetic effects in controlling the configuration and dynamics of Ganymede's magnetosphere. We find that the Hall MHD and MHD-EPIC solutions are qualitatively similar, but there are significant quantitative differences. In particular, the density and pressure inside the magnetosphere show different distributions. For our baseline grid resolution the PIC solution is more dynamic than the Hall MHD simulation and it compares significantly better with the Galileo magnetic measurements than the Hall MHD solution. The power spectra of the observed and simulated magnetic field fluctuations agree extremely well for the MHD-EPIC model. The MHD-EPIC simulation also produced a few flux transfer events (FTEs) that have magnetic signatures very similar to an observed event. The simulation shows that the FTEs often exhibit complex 3-D structures with their orientations changing substantially between the equatorial plane and the Galileo trajectory, which explains the magnetic signatures observed during the magnetopause crossings. The computational cost of the MHD-EPIC simulation was only about 4 times more than that of the Hall MHD simulation. Key Points
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6. |
- Toth, Gabor, et al.
(författare)
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Scaling the Ion Inertial Length and Its Implications for Modeling Reconnection in Global Simulations
- 2017
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Ingår i: Journal of Geophysical Research - Space Physics. - : AMER GEOPHYSICAL UNION. - 2169-9380 .- 2169-9402. ; 122:10, s. 10336-10355
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We investigate the use of artificially increased ion and electron kinetic scales in global plasma simulations. We argue that as long as the global and ion inertial scales remain well separated, (1) the overall global solution is not strongly sensitive to the value of the ion inertial scale, while (2) the ion inertial scale dynamics will also be similar to the original system, but it occurs at a larger spatial scale, and (3) structures at intermediate scales, such as magnetic islands, grow in a self-similar manner. To investigate the validity and limitations of our scaling hypotheses, we carry out many simulations of a two-dimensional magnetosphere with the magnetohydrodynamics with embedded particle-in-cell (MHD-EPIC) model. The PIC model covers the dayside reconnection site. The simulation results confirm that the hypotheses are true as long as the increased ion inertial length remains less than about 5% of the magnetopause standoff distance. Since the theoretical arguments are general, we expect these results to carry over to three dimensions. The computational cost is reduced by the third and fourth powers of the scaling factor in two-and three-dimensional simulations, respectively, which can be many orders of magnitude. The present results suggest that global simulations that resolve kinetic scales for reconnection are feasible. This is a crucial step for applications to the magnetospheres of Earth, Saturn, and Jupiter and to the solar corona.
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