Coupled MHD – Hybrid Simulations of Space Plasmas

Abstract

Heliospheric plasmas require multi-scale and multi-physics considerations. On one hand, MHD codes are widely used for global simulations of the solar-terrestrial environments, but do not provide the most elaborate physical description of space plasmas. Hybrid codes, on the other hand, capture important physical processes, such as electric currents and effects of finite Larmor radius, but they can be used locally only, since the limitations in available computational resources do not allow for their use throughout a global computational domain. In the present work, we present a new coupled scheme which allows to switch blocks in the block-adaptive grids from fluid MHD to hybrid simulations, without modifying the self-consistent computation of the electromagnetic fields acting on fluids (in MHD simulation) or charged ion macroparticles (in hybrid simulation). In this way, the hybrid scheme can refine the description in specified regions of interest without compromising the efficiency of the global MHD code.