Grad-Shafranov and MHD Reconstructions
Abstract
Since the publication of the multi-spacecraft data analysis book ISSI SR-001, new methods have been developed that allow field and plasma structures traversed by one or more spacecraft to be reconstructed in a region surrounding the spacecraft path from the measured data. Maps of field and plasma properties are created with the aid of various versions of the MHD equations, under the assumption that the structures can be treated as two-dimensional (∂/∂ z ≃ 0), and as approximately time-independent in their proper (i.e., co-moving) frame of reference. Reconstruction of this type is not to be confused with numerical simulation. The former generates a time-stationary set of maps, the latter a description of the time evolution of a structure from some given initial state. In this chapter, we describe briefly four different reconstruction methods.
- Publication:
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ISSI Scientific Reports Series
- Pub Date:
- 2008
- Bibcode:
- 2008ISSIR...8...81S
- Keywords:
-
- space plasmas;
- magnetic field maps;
- Grad-Shafranov/MHD-reconstructions