Over 20-year global magnetohydrodynamic simulation of Earth's magnetosphere

TL;DR

This paper presents a 20-year simulation of Earth's magnetosphere using the GUMICS-5 model with improved resolution and parallelization, comparing results to empirical data and providing valuable data for space weather prediction.

Contribution

The paper introduces GUMICS-5 with enhanced resolution and parallel processing, offering a long-term, high-resolution simulation of Earth's magnetosphere based on extensive satellite data.

Findings

GUMICS-5 reproduces solar cycle trends in magnetopause distance and lobe field strength.

Better correlation with Kp index than AE index.

Simulation data is publicly available for further research.

Abstract

We present our approach to modeling over 20 years of the solar wind-magnetosphere-ionosphere system using version 5 of the Grand Unified Magnetosphere-Ionosphere Coupling Simulation (GUMICS-5). As input we use 16-s resolution magnetic field and 1-min plasma measurements by the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) satellite from 1998 to 2020. The modeled interval is divided into 28 h simulations, which include 4 h overlap. We use a maximum magnetospheric resolution of 0.5 Earth radii (Re) up to about 15 Re from Earth and decreasing resolution further away. In the ionosphere we use a maximum resolution of approximately 100 km poleward of +-58 degrees magnetic latitude and decreasing resolution towards the equator. With respect to the previous version GUMICS-4, we have parallelized the magnetosphere of GUMICS-5 using the Message Passing Interface and have made several improvements which have e.g. decreased its numerical diffusion. We compare the simulation results to several empirical models and geomagnetic indices derived from ground magnetic field measurements. GUMICS-5 reproduces observed solar cycle trends in magnetopause stand-off distance and magnetospheric lobe field strength but consistency in plasma sheet pressure and ionospheric cross-polar cap potential is lower. Comparisons with geomagnetic indices show better results for Kp index than for AE index. The simulation results are available at https://doi.org/10.23729/ca1da110-2d4e-45c4-8876-57210fbb0b0d, consisting of full ionospheric files and size-optimized magnetospheric files. The data used for Figures is available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6641258. Our extensive results can serve e.g. as a foundation for a combined physics-based and black-box approach to real-time prediction of near-Earth space, or as input to other physics-based models of the inner magnetosphere, upper and middle atmosphere, etc.