Potential Uses
From OpenGGCM
Dayside studies (easy and well tested):
- reconnection geometry
- interaction of SW structures with the bow shock and magnetopause
- magnetopause size and shape
- field line topology
- cusp location and shape
- determination of S/C locations with respect to boundaries, layers
- comparisons with in-situ data data
- particle tracing around reconnection layers, cusp, etc.
- Plasma Depletion Layer (PDL) is currently a grad student topic.
Requirements:
- short runs: 2-3 hours real time
- short startup (0.5-1 hour)
- not very sensitive to numerical parameters or ionosphere
- usually requires high resolution between shock and magnetopause (about 0.2 RE or better)
Ionosphere and MI coupling (still easy and reasonably well tested):
- effects of solar wind transients
- electron precipitation
- convection patterns (PCP drop may be too high but patterns are usually good)
- polar cap size, boundary, and shape
- data comparisons with DMSP, Polar, FAST, etc.
Requirements:
- relatively short runs: 2-4 hours real time
- short startup (1-2h)
- sensitive to ionosphere parameters (should be varied to investigate sensitivity)
- not very sensitive to numerical parameters like resistivity
- usually requires medium resolution between shock and magnetopause (about 0.3 RE)
Ionosphere-thermosphere with CTIM
- very little experience so far
- good opportunities for data comparisons: ionosondes, radars, winds, composition, satellite drag
- flywheel effect
- data comparisons with DMSP, Polar, FAST, etc.
Requirements:
- relatively long runs: 10-30 hours real time
- long startup (5-10 hour)
- sensitive to ionosphere parameters (should be varied to investigate sensitivity)
- not very sensitive to numerical parameters like resistivity
- usually requires low resolution (0.5 RE)
Tail configuration (somewhat harder and reasonably well tested):
- size and shape of the tail
- effects of solar wind transients (pressure pulses)
- plasma entry
- field topology
- particle tracing
- ionosphere mapping
Requirements:
- modestly long runs: 4-8 hours real time
- long startup (2-4h)
- somewhat sensitive to ionosphere parameters (should be varied to investigate sensitivity)
- sensitive to numerical parameters like resistivity and grid resolution
- usually requires low resolution in the dayside (0.4-0.6 RE) and medium resolution in the tail (0.5-2 RE)
Substorms (hard and requires tweaking):
- onset timing
- ground perturbations, electrojets
- tail reconfiguration, plasmoids, TCRs
- dipolarization
- auroral brightening
- particle acceleration and injection
Requirements:
- long runs: 6-16 hours real time
- long startup (2-4h)
- very sensitive to ionosphere parameters (should be varied to investigate sensitivity)
- very sensitive to numerical parameters like resistivity and grid resolution (should be varied)
- usually requires medium resolution in the dayside (0.3-0.5 RE) and medium resolution in the tail (0.3-2 RE)
- do not expect a substorm right away, the "default" behavior is SMC
Storms (hard and may require tweaking):
- magnetoapuse location
- ground perturbations, electrojets
- tail reconfiguration, plasmoids, TCRs
- dipolarization
- auroral brightening
- particle acceleration and injection
- many space weather effects
- generally produces activity level but individual onsets are often off
Requirements:
- very long runs: 18-48 hours real time
- long startup (2-4h)
- sensitive to ionosphere parameters (should be varied to investigate sensitivity)
- sensitive to numerical parameters like resistivity and grid resolution (should be varied)
- usually requires low resolution in the dayside (0.5 RE) and low resolution in the tail (0.5-2 RE)
- do not expect correct onsets, careful with extreme parameters (low SW Mach number, large negative Bz, high dynamic pressure)
- code may break with a "potential runaway" condition. This does not cause a crash but results are meaningless for some time. Code can recover from this.
