Collaborative Research: Substorm Particle Injection into the Ring Current--MagnetoHydroDynamic (MHD) with Embedded Particle-In-Cell (PIC) Simulation Approach

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Magnetic storms generate energetic particles and strong wave activity in the magnetosphere. Modeling this system is of critical importance both for its societal and scientific relevance. This work will use a combined fluid-particle modeling approach to understand the role of kinetic processes in the inner magnetosphere. A graduate student will be trained and a new more realistic model of the storm time inner magnetosphere magnetic field, including the ring current, will be made publicly available to the space weather community.The project will study the process of particle injection from the magnetotail by developing, validating, and using a self-consistent particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation embedded in a global magetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulation of the solar wind-magnetosphere-ionosphere system. By using the multi-scale particle-in-cell (MSPIC) approach featuring an implicit PIC system that encompasses a large fraction of the inner magnetosphere, they will investigate ring current injection and acceleration during magnetic storm related substorms. This will enable the study of wave-particle interactions missing from other large-scale ring current simulation models.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.