|
|
|
Advanced MHD Algorithm for Solar and Space Science
|
|
|
| The Living With a Star initiative aims to understand those aspects of the Sun-Earth system that affect our life and society. It will investigate the influence of magnetic reconnection on the global corona, the initiation and propagation of CMEs, the evolution of active regions, and the identification of the birthplace of transients. It promises to deliver images and magnetic field measurements with an unprecedented resolution. New advanced software algorithms are required to model these observations and assimilate observational data into models.
The magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) model is appropriate for describing the low-frequency motions of the coronal plasma. In order to be useful to investigate the science problems in the LWS program,, an MHD algorithm must satisfy several computational requirements due to:
*Extreme separation of time scales.
*Extreme separation of spatial scales.
For the algorithm to be widely adopted by the solar and space science community, it must:
*Use parallel computing methods.
*Use standard languages and software.
We propose to meet these requirements through an open source project to deliver a sophisticated MHD algorithm highly reliant on other free and/or open source software tools. The goal of the project is to develop MH4D: parallel, machine independent, code that solves the resistive MHS equations on an unstructured grid of tetrahedra. It will employ Adaptive Mesh Refinement (AMR) to resolve evolving small scale spatial structures, such as current sheets and shock waves. It will feature a fully implicit treatment of viscous and resistive dissipation, and a semi-implicit advancement of the momentum equation (the time step will be limited only by the advective CFL condition). MH4D will be developed in Fortran 90 and MPI, use publicly available libraries and software tools such as PETSc, Metis, and GMV, and be made accessible to the solar and space science community. |
|
|
