MHD-Epic: Embedded Particle-in-Cell Simulations of Reconnection in Global 3D Extended MHD Simulations

Lars K S Daldorff1, Gabor Toth2, Dmitry Borovikov3, Tamas I Gombosi2 and Giovanni Lapenta4, (1)The Catholic University of America, Washington, United States, (2)University of Michigan, Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering, Ann Arbor, United States, (3)University of Michigan Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor, MI, United States, (4)KU Leuven, Mathematics, Leuven, Belgium
Abstract:
With the new modeling capability in the Space Weather Modeling Framework (SWMF) of embedding an implicit Particle-in-Cell (PIC) model iPIC3D into the BATS-R-US magnetohydrodynamics model (Daldorff et al. 2014, JCP, 268, 236) we are ready to locally handle the full physics of the reconnection and its implications on the full system where globally, away from the reconnection region, a magnetohydrodynamic description is satisfactory. As magnetic reconnection is one of the main drivers in magnetospheric and heliospheric plasma dynamics, the self-consistent description of the electron dynamics in the coupled MHD-EPIC model is well suited for investigating the nature of these systems. We will compare the new embedded MHD-EPIC model with pure MHD and Hall MHD simulations of the Earth's magnetosphere.
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