A New Multifluid Magnetospheric Model

We present a newly developed multifluid magnetospheric model, as well as initial results, demonstrating its capabilities with simulations of Earth’s magnetosphere. This model is based upon a multifluid model—first developed by Winglee and later extended by Paty—that has been used at Earth, as well as at numerous other bodies throughout the solar system. The new model retains the core physics of the Winglee model, while allowing for greatly enhanced functionality and performance. This has been accomplished through a complete redesign of procedures and data structures. Notable new features include a flexible and dynamic grid structure, the ability to accommodate arbitrary numbers of ion and neutral species, a modular system for implementation of ion and neutral distributions, support for multiple numerical methods, and a parallelization scheme with greater scalability.