Collaborative Research: GEM: Global Simulations of Non-Ideal Transport in the Magnetotail

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Plasma from the tail reconnection site is transported into the inner magnetosphere where it forms the ring current. The most common type of model for studying this transport is a global magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) model. These are frequently coupled with models of the plasma transport in the inner magnetosphere since MHD models do not describe the physics well in the inner magnetosphere. This is a project to enhance the physics of the MHD models in the tail where they work best. This effort will add diamagnetic (pressure driven) drifts, inertial drifts, finite Larmor radius effects on the pressure tensor, and the energy dependence of these drifts. The improved model will be used to study magnetospheric convection, fast bursty bulk flows and dipolarization fronts, the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability and the structure of thin current sheets.The improved simulation code when coupled with an inner magnetosphere model will be useful in studying transport during magnetic storms. Therefore it will valuable for space weather studies. Since space weather represents a series hazard this work may be of significant societal value.