Numerical Techniques for Coupled Ring Current - Radiation Belt Modelling

Abstract:

The dynamics of electrons in the Earth’s radiation belts can be described by the Fokker-Planck equation which includes radial diffusion and local energy and pitch angle diffusion. Versatile Electron Radiation Belt (VERB-3D) code was developed to solve the Fokker-Planck equation. It incorporates a range of numerical techniques which are appropriate for this purpose. The code has been recently extended to include convection and now solves the convection-diffusion problem in 4D.

The report is devoted to several numerical algorithms for modeling of the Earth’s radiation belts. We concentrate on high-order schemes ( 7^th and 9^th order) for solution of an advection-diffusion problem in 1D, 2D,3D and 4D. Results of tests performed to study accuracy and speed of these schemes are presented in the report.