March 30, 2018, 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm

March 30, 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm

Simulations of kinetic plasma processes in the Earth's magnetosphere and beyond

Vadim Roytershteyn (Space Science Institute)

While typically confined to small spatial and fast temporal scales, kinetic processes often play a significant role in global dynamics of weakly collisional space and astrophysical plasmas. For example, such processes often determine macroscopic transport properties of plasma, or give rise to phenomena capable of spanning a wide range of scales (e.g. beams, supra-thermal particles, etc). First-principle simulations of systems where such cross-scale coupling is expected to occur require models capable of accurately describing microscopic physics and of bridging the large separation between micro- and macro-scales. In this talk I will discuss several problems where significant advances have been made recently both by using brute-force simulations relying on advances in high-performance computing and through use of advanced models. These include magnetic reconnection, solar wind turbulence, and evolution of ring-like distributions of pickup ions in the outer heliosheath. Finally, I will present recent efforts dedicated to simulating transient magnetosheath processes using global kinetic simulations of the Earth's magnetosphere.