Mesoscale-resolving global modeling of geospace

Abstract:

Stormtime geospace exhibits some of the most complex and least understood interactions in space physics. This complexity is in large part due to both the cross-scale and cross-domain nature of these interactions. Indeed, during stormtime all domains of geospace become active while their interaction is mediated or sometimes driven by processes occurring across a broad range of scales. Therefore, a crucial requirement for any model of stormtime geospace is that it include all of its key domains while resolving all of the critical scales. In this presentation, we will review recent work by the team of the NASA DRIVE Center for Geospace Storms on the development of such a model that we call the Multiscale Atmosphere-Geospace Environment (MAGE) model. The mesoscale-resolving capabilities of MAGE across the domains of geospace will be demonstrated by way of example of several processes that are known to play a significant role in stormtime energy or mass redistribution throughout geospace. These examples will include: the build-up of the ring current by mesoscale plasmasheet transport, magnetopause boundary instabilities, subauroral polarization streams, F-region ionosphere polar cap density patches, and travelling ionospheric and atmospheric disturbances. We will conclude with a discussion of further steps that need to be taken to ensure a more self-consistent representation of stormtime geospace in community models.