Work Package 4: Paraboloid Magnetospheric Models

WP4 is one of the two work packages, which form the IMPEx modelling sector. The main objective of WP4 consists in enabling IMPEx with an access to the Paraboloid Magnetospheric Models (PMMs) and their associated computing and data resources for simulation of magnetospheres of different Solar System objects operated by SINP. This goal is naturally linked to the task of developing a set of user friendly interfaces and analysis tools for operation of PMM and access to the model performance results.

The modelling core of WP4 consists of a set of analytical PMMs (Alexeev 1978), and their numerical implementations, suited for different magnetized planets which are modifications of the Earth's PMM developed in SINP. This model appears in the base of the recently published ISO (International Standard Organization) standard ISO 22009:2009 "Space systems -- Space environment (natural and artificial) -- Model of the Earth's magnetospheric magnetic field". PMMs have been successfully tested against magnetic field measurements performed by spacecraft at Jupiter and Saturn (Alexeev & Belenkaya, 2005; Alexeev et al., 2006).

Within the frame of the proposed project, the scope of WP4 modelling targets includes magnetospheres of Mercury, Earth, Jupiter and Saturn. Besides of that a modelling tool for calculation of the Terrestrial, Jovian and Saturnian auroral oval position in the upper atmosphere for varying interplanetary magnetic field will be developed and made available to users. WP4 will provide (jointly with WP3) a set of PMM Modelling functionalities for support of observations and spacecraft operation, including  output/visualization of the predicted by the model magnetic field vectors and the structure of the open field line bundles along the orbit of a real or virtual spacecraft. The 3D and 4D visualization tools developed within WP2 and WP3 will be used for the representation and analysis of PMM outputs.

A, B - Jupiter's magnetospheric structure calculated in the paraboloid model for different IMF orientations (A: bx = -0.02 nT; by = 0 nT; bz = 0.5 nT; and B: bx = -0.26 nT; by = 0 nT; bz = -0.2 nT).
A - Comparison of magnetometer data (thin curves) and model predicted magnetic field strength (solid curves) during the Mariner 10 I flyby (orange curves), the Mariner 10 III flyby (blue curves), the MESSENGER 1 flyby (green curves), and the MESSENGER 2 flyby (red curves). B - Magnetic field module measured by Pioneer 11 during the inbound Saturn pass (black curve); magnetic field module calculated by the SPV model (blue curve), and computed by the Kronian paraboloid model (red curve).

The PMM modelling activity in WP4 will feed directly into the IMPEx WP2 and WP3. In particular, the PMMs outputs will be linked to the IMPEx Data and Model environment (DaME) and interconnected with its large archive of space mission data (enabled by AMDA). Besides of that, WP3 will use the PMM modeling results (for Mercury and Earth) as a reference structure for its more complicated and time consuming self-consistent calculations of magnetic environments of planetary objects provided by HYB and MHD models.