Collaborative Research: Space Weather--Self-Consistent Modeling of Inner Magnetosphere Under Enhanced Convections

该项目将开发等离子体片近地部分的自洽模型。 它将详细说明粒子分布，等离子体片对磁场的影响，以及等离子体片对磁暴期间环电流形成的影响。 该方法将使用测试粒子跟踪技术结合MHD代码。 该技术将耦合粒子跟踪与MHD建模的方式，将产生一个自洽的模型，而不使用基本的MHD近似是无效的内等离子体片。 这种方法已经被用于模拟安静时间的等离子体片，该方法现在将被扩展到增强对流的条件下，包括亚暴和对流湾的增长阶段（稳定的磁层对流）。 在项目的后期阶段，该模型将扩展到二维等离子体片模型之外，以包括等离子体片内的场对准电流。

This project will develop a self-consistent model of the near-Earth portion of the plasma sheet. It will specify the particle distributions, the effects of the plasma sheet on the magnetic field, and the effects of the plasma sheet on the formation of the ring current during magnetic storms. The approach will be to use test particle tracing techniques in conjunction with an MHD code. The technique will couple the particle tracing with the MHD modeling in a way that will produce a self-consistent model without using the basic MHD approximations that are invalid within the inner plasma sheet. This approach has already been used in modeling the quiet-time plasma sheet and the method will now be extended to conditions of enhanced convection, including the growth phase of substorms and convection bays (steady magnetospheric convection). During the later stages of the project the model will be extended beyond a 2-D plasma sheet model to include field-aligned currents within the plasma sheet.