A Self-consistent Magnetosphere-Ionosphere-Thermosphere Coupling Models
Abstract:
Space Science Laboratory and Department of Physics, University of Massachusetts Lowell, USA
Over the past decades, countless studies have been dedicated to describing the magnetosphere-ionosphere/thermosphere coupling. The models that have been used for practical purposes in global senses are with either a static ionospheric magnetic field or a height-integrated ionosphere, both of which are not valid or adequate to describe the transient ionospheric processes such as substorms or auroral brightening. Furthermore, the conventional concepts of mapping the electric potential, magnetic field, and field-aligned currents become invalid during the dynamic stage. A framework of theory has been developed and numerical algorithms are being developed to self-consistently describe an electromagnetically coupled collisional plasma-neutral system with the inductive and plasma as well as neutral dynamic effects. In this talk, we describe the approach of multi-fluid inductive dynamic magnetosphere-ionosphere-thermosphere (MID-MIT) coupling, in which electrons, ions and neutrals are treated dynamically as multiple fluids self-consistently by solving the continuity (including the photo chemical processes), momentum, and energy equations with Maxwell’s equations. The magnetic field can vary with time and in space: its temporal variations induce electric field and its spatial variations produce currents. We present the newest results from 2-D simulations. We show that the dynamic processes of the formation of the field-aligned current, the Pedersen current and Hall current, as well as the formation of the ionospheric electric field. These processes involve wave propagation, reflection, and refraction.