Simulating Magnetohydrodynamic Turbulence in the Plasma Sheet and its Role in Transport

模拟等离子体片中的磁流体动力湍流及其在传输中的作用

• 批准号: 1265967
• 负责人: Mostafa El-Alaoui
• 金额: $ 37.28万
• 依托单位: University of California-Los Angeles
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-01-15 至 2017-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1265967&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Simulating; Magnetohydrodynamic; Turbulence; Plasma; Sheet

This project will perform and analyze numerical magneto-hydrodynamic (MHD) simulations of the terrestrial magnetosphere with the aim to investigate the causes of large-scale, low-frequency turbulence in the plasma sheet and its implications for convection, transport, and the energy budget. With respect to potential causes of turbulence, the relative roles of turbulence in the upstream solar wind, reconnection, and other internal processes will be investigated. In addition, the role of coupling to the ionosphere will be examined. A well-documented and successfully validated MHD model will be run on state-of-the-art NASA and NSF XSEDE supercomputer systems to perform a well planned set of high resolution idealized simulation runs as well as case studies driven by solar wind observations for real events. For the latter, the results will be further analyzed and verified by comparison with magnetosphere observations from the THEMIS spacecraft. Turbulence is a phenomenon that occurs widely in fluid systems and turbulent processes are abundant in space plasmas. The Earth's magnetosphere is a natural laboratory for studying such processes, where both simulations and direct observations are possible. Results from this project therefore will have impact on a broad variety of research areas.

该项目将进行和分析地球磁层的磁流体动力学（MHD）数值模拟，目的是研究等离子体片中大规模低频湍流的原因及其对对流，传输和能量收支的影响。关于湍流的潜在原因，将研究湍流在上游太阳风、重连和其他内部过程中的相对作用。此外，还将研究与电离层耦合的作用。 将在最先进的NASA和NSF XSEDE超级计算机系统上运行一个记录良好并成功验证的MHD模型，以执行一组精心策划的高分辨率理想化模拟运行以及由真实的事件的太阳风观测驱动的案例研究。 对于后者，将通过与THEMIS航天器的磁层观测结果进行比较，进一步分析和验证结果。湍流是流体系统中广泛存在的一种现象，空间等离子体中存在大量的湍流过程。地球的磁层是研究这种过程的天然实验室，在那里可以进行模拟和直接观测。因此，该项目的结果将对广泛的研究领域产生影响。