Inner Magnetosphere Multiscale Modeling and Validation

The extreme variability of the near-Earth space environment threatens both space-borne and ground-based assets essential to a modern society. The development of reliable models of this environment however faces major challenges due to the necessity of multiscale phenomena resolution, as well as the need of innovative analysis methods for the data volumes produced by such complex models. We present recent advancements in the self-consistent modeling of the plasma and fields in the inner magnetosphere using our kinetic ring current model two-way coupled with a 3-D magnetic field code and an ionospheric electric potential solver (RAM-SCB-E). The depth and azimuthal extent of ring current ion and electron penetration during storm time depend strongly on their transport in realistic electric and magnetic fields and concurrent acceleration and loss. We investigate the effects of the newly injected plasma populations on the generation and global distribution of plasma waves during several geomagnetic storms. We find that although the plasma wave simulations reproduce the expected global behavior from statistical studies, the event-specific unstable regions are more dynamic both in space and in time. Simulated energetic particle (H⁺, He⁺, O⁺, and electron) fluxes are compared with high-resolution observations from the Van Allen Probes A and B, and Arase satellite for model validation and identification of areas in need of further improvement. The initial deployment and testing of a simplified version of RAM-SCB-E suitable for near-real time operations at the Community Coordinated Modeling Center (CCMC) is discussed.