Global magnetohydrodynamic magnetosphere simulation with an adaptively
embedded particle-in-cell model
Abstract
We perform a geomagnetic event simulation using a newly developed
magnetohydrodynamic with adaptively embedded particle-in-cell
(MHD-AEPIC) model. We have developed effective criteria to identify
reconnection sites in the magnetotail and cover them with the PIC model.
The MHD-AEPIC simulation results are compared with Hall MHD and ideal
MHD simulations to study the impacts of kinetic reconnection at multiple
physical scales. At the global scale, the three models produce very
similar SYM-H and SuperMag Electrojet (SME) indexes, which indicates
that the global magnetic field configurations from the three models are
very close to each other. We also compare the ionospheric solver results
and all three models generate similar polar cap potentials and field
aligned currents. At the mesoscale we compare the simulations with in
situ Geotail observations in the tail. All three models produce
reasonable agreement with the Geotail observations. At the kinetic
scales, the MHD-AEPIC simulation can produce a crescent shape
distribution of the electron velocity space at the electron diffusion
region which agrees very well with MMS observations near a tail
reconnection site. These electron scale kinetic features are not
available in either the Hall MHD or ideal MHD models. Overall, the
MHD-AEPIC model compares well with observations at all scales, it works
robustly, and the computational cost is acceptable due to the adaptive
adjustment of the PIC domain. It remains to be determined whether
kinetic physics can play a more significant role in other types of
events, including but not limited to substorms.