Title: GLOBAL SIMULATIONS: WHAT DO THEY TELL ABOUT THE LARGE-SCALE MAGNETOSPHERIC DYNAMICS
Abstract: Quantitative methods have been developed to evaluate energy transport across the bow shock to the magnetosheath and into the magnetosphere in global magnetohydrodynamic simulations of the solar wind - magnetosphere - ionosphere system. A series of simulation runs are used to identify the most important factors controlling the energy transport from the solar wind into the magnetosphere and ionosphere. Analysis of these results have brought new aspects that complement the earlier observational results: (1) The energy input through the magnetopause is delayed with respect to changes in the IMF orientation, which is seen as a delayed response in both tail dynamics and ionospheric energy dissipation. (2) The solar wind clock angle modulates the energy input, but the solar wind speed has a larger effect than that suggested by the empirical epsilon-parameter. (3) The solar wind density has a minor role in ionospheric parameters, but does affect the magnetotail dynamics and transport properties. Similarly, methods have been developed to examine disturbance propagation in the magnetosphere at times of shock interactions. The simulations confirm the observational result that the propagation speed is higher in the magneto- sphere than in the solar wind. Furthermore, the simulations are used to examine the routes of fastest propagation in the magnetosphere. Several simulation results are reviewed and compared with recent observational analyses.
Publication Year: 2008
Publication Date: 2008-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
Access and Citation
Cited By Count: 2
AI Researcher Chatbot
Get quick answers to your questions about the article from our AI researcher chatbot