Three-dimensional kinetic-MHD model of the global heliosphere with the heliopause-surface fitting

TL;DR

This paper presents a comprehensive 3D kinetic-MHD model of the heliosphere that incorporates detailed plasma interactions, magnetic fields, and heliolatitudinal variations, with a focus on the heliospheric magnetic field effects.

Contribution

It introduces a novel 3D kinetic-MHD model of the heliosphere that accurately accounts for plasma, magnetic fields, and flow directions without numerical diffusion across the heliopause.

Findings

Model successfully reproduces Lyman-alpha absorption spectra.

Heliospheric magnetic field significantly influences heliosphere structure.

No numerical diffusion across the heliopause in the model.

Abstract

This paper provides a detailed description of the latest version of our model of the solar wind (SW) interaction with the local interstellar medium (LISM). This model has already been applied to the analysis of Lyman-alpha absorption spectra toward nearby stars and for analyses of Solar and Heliospheric Observatory/SWAN data. Katushkina et al. (this issue) used the model results to analyze IBEX-Lo data. At the same time, the details of this model have not yet been published. This is a three-dimensional (3D) kinetic-magnetohydrodynamical (MHD) model that takes into account SW and interstellar plasmas (including $\alpha$ particles in SW and helium ions in LISM), the solar and interstellar magnetic fields, and the interstellar hydrogen atoms. The latitudinal dependence of SW and the actual flow direction of the interstellar gas with respect to the Sun are also taken into account in the model. It was very essential that our numerical code had been developed in such a way that any numerical diffusion or reconnection across the heliopause had not been allowed in the model. The heliospheric current sheet is a rotational discontinuity in the ideal MHD and can be treated kinematically. In the paper, we focus in particular on the effects of the heliospheric magnetic field and on the heliolatitudinal dependence of SW.