Abstract
SWIFF is a project funded by the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Commission to study the mathematical-physics models that form the basis for space weather forecasting. The phenomena of space weather span a tremendous scale of densities and temperature with scales ranging 10 orders of magnitude in space and time. Additionally even in local regions there are concurrent processes developing at the electron, ion and global scales strongly interacting with each other. The fundamental challenge in modelling space weather is the need to address multiple physics and multiple scales. Here we present our approach to take existing expertise in fluid and kinetic models to produce an integrated mathematical approach and software infrastructure that allows fluid and kinetic processes to be modelled together. SWIFF aims also at using this new infrastructure to model specific coupled processes at the Solar Corona, in the interplanetary space and in the interaction at the Earth magnetosphere.
Highlights
Space weather refers to a complex state resulting from the Sun activity, propagating in the interplanetary space and possibly affecting the Earth space environment, which all together can influence, the performance and reliability of spaceborne and ground-based technological systems, but more significantly can endanger human life or health
SWIFF (Space Weather Integrated Forecasting Framework) aims at creating a mathematical model and a software infrastructure able to describe and predict the physical processes in the magnetized plasma all the way between the Sun and Earth. It aims at coupling different regions of space to produce tools that would rise space weather forecasting to qualitatively new level
The process of magnetic reconnection bases its effectiveness on the presence of microscopic processes that dissipate energy and enable macroscopic changes of the magnetic field configuration. This micro-macro coupling requires to couple fluid models valid for macroscopic processes with kinetic models required for the proper treatment of the microphysics
Summary
Space weather refers to a complex state resulting from the Sun activity, propagating in the interplanetary space and possibly affecting the Earth space environment, which all together can influence, the performance and reliability of spaceborne and ground-based technological systems, but more significantly can endanger human life or health. SWIFF (Space Weather Integrated Forecasting Framework) aims at creating a mathematical model and a software infrastructure able to describe and predict the physical processes in the magnetized plasma all the way between the Sun and Earth. It aims at coupling different regions of space to produce tools that would rise space weather forecasting to qualitatively new level. SWIFF aims at creating an integrated framework able to treat these coupled processes: electron, ion and magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) scales These three scales need different physics approaches: fully kinetic at the electron scales, MHD at the global scale and hybrid or other advanced fluid methods at the ion scales. This approach is described here and it is demonstrated to the specific case of reconnection regions
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