Transcript Center of trifold poster

Computational Model of Energetic
Particle Fluxes in the Magnetosphere
Yu (Evans) Xiang
TJHSST Computer Systems Lab 2005-2006
Mentor: Dr. John Guillory, George Mason University
Introduction
The Earth's magnetosphere is a region of space
dominated by Earth's magnetic fields. Motion of
energetic charged particles, such as electrons and
protons, in this region is affected mainly by these
magnetic fields and the induced electric fields.
This project seeks to develop a computational
model for co-processing energetic particles in the
magnetosphere, which will assist in studying the
behavior of charged particles and predicting
events affected by particle fluxes in this region of
space.
Figure 1 Earth’s magnetosphere
http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/academy/space/Magnetosphere.GIF
Problems
Description
This
computational
model
uses
data
about
the
• Gathering data from direct observation of
magnetic
and
electric
fields
calculated
from
particle motion in the magnetosphere is very
available
magnetohydrodynamics
(MHD)
difficult.
code to move a number of charged particles
• Electronic equipment, such as on satellites and while neglecting their own fields, energy
orbiting telescopes, can be damaged by
depositions, and relativistic effects. In regions
collisions with energetic particles.
where the field conditions satisfy certain
constraints, such as the conservation of
• Disturbances and particle fluxes in the
magnetic moment, only the guiding center’s
magnetosphere have direct effects on the
movement will be tracked (the north-south
ionosphere.
bounce, drift due to crossed electric and
Solutions this project provides that can be used magnetic fields, and drift due to magnetic
to solve these problems
field inhomogeneity). In regions where the
approximations of the guiding centers’
• Creation of software to assist scientists studying
motions break down, the fast gyro motion will
energetic particle motion in the magnetosphere.
be calculated at the cost of much higher run
• Prediction of events involving charged particle time. At each time step, an interpolation
fluxes in this region of space.
routine will use a matrix of field values
calculated from the MHD code to compute the
• Testing tool for future models of the
magnetic and electric fields. Each particle's
magnetosphere.
trajectory and energy will be updated and
recorded. A simple visualization routine is
programmed to provide a qualitative graphical
display of the data.