Scientists at the Indian Institute of Geomagnetism (IIG), an autonomous institution of the Department of Science and Technology, have developed a generalized one-dimensional fluid simulation code capable of detecting a broad spectrum of coherent electric field structures in a near-terrestrial plasma environment or geomagnetosphere. study what might be helpful in planning future space missions.
The Earth’s magnetosphere is a vast area with a finite number of satellites sweeping through this realm. Therefore, the in situ observations are finite and discrete. The morphology of the plasma processes around the satellite is quite understandable. However, when they leave the observation domain of one satellite to enter the other, a huge blind arena is created. How the morphology of these processes changes in time and space can only be deciphered ideally by computer simulations.
This was the motivation for Dr. Ajay Lotekar to tackle the problem under the guidance of Dr. Amar Kakad of IIG. To address this issue, the team developed a generalized 1D fluid code that modeled the coherent electric field structures in space plasmas. They tested their code for different types of wave phenomena that generate coherent electric field structures near the Earth’s plasma environment. These simulations were performed on the High Performance Computing System of IIG. The results obtained through their fluid simulation code, published in the journal Physics of Plasmas, were found to agree well with the space observations of coherent electric field structures.
Nearly 99% of the matter in the universe is in the form of plasma, the Earth’s magnetosphere also contains this material, and the plasma processes have the ability to interfere with the operation of a number of satellites orbiting in the magnetospheric region #
Apart from the well-being of these expensive satellites, the academic understanding of this region is quite essential to understanding the cosmos as a whole. Sun is the major source of plasma deposition in space around the Earth. The sun forces part of its plasma to Earth in the form of the solar wind. The speed of this wind varies from 300 to 1500 km / s, which involves a magnetic solar field, the so-called interplanetary magnetic field (IMF). The interaction of the IMF with the Earth’s magnetic field creates the Earth’s magnetosphere.
(With inputs from PIB)