Propagation of MHD disturbance in numerical modelling: Accuracy issues and condition
Abstract
In space weather studies, MHD numerical models are often used to study time-dependent simulations over relatively long time period and large size space, which include many examples from the solar origin to the Earth impact in the heliosphere. There have been rising questions on whether many different numerical codes are consistent with each other and how we can confirm the validity of simulation results for a given event. In this study, we firstly introduce a class of exact analytic solutions of MHD when the boundary is driven by certain impulsive impacts. Secondly we test and compare MHD numerical models with the exact full MHD solution above to check whether the simulations are sufficiently accurate. Our results show 1) that numerical errors are very significant in the problems of MHD disturbance propagation in the interplanetary space, 2) that typical spatial and temporal resolutions, which are widely used in numerical modelling, are found to easily produce more than a few hours up to 10 hours in arrival timing at the near-Earth space, and 3) how we can avoid serious errors by optimizing the model parameters in advance via studying with an exact solution.
- Publication:
-
41st COSPAR Scientific Assembly
- Pub Date:
- July 2016
- Bibcode:
- 2016cosp...41E1000K