Topanga: A kinetic ion plasma code for large-scale ionospheric simulations on magnetohydrodynamic timescales

Belyaev, Mikhail A.; Larson, David J.; Cohen, Bruce I.; Clark, Stephen E.

doi:10.1063/5.0177132

Topanga: A kinetic ion plasma code for large-scale ionospheric simulations on magnetohydrodynamic timescales

Journal Article · Sun Jan 21 23:00:00 EST 2024 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0177132· OSTI ID:2567766

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Topanga is a kinetic ion code developed for simulating large-scale plasma phenomena in the Earth's ionosphere on magnetohydrodynamic timescales. It is a domain-decomposed parallel code that runs on high-performance computing platforms. Features of Topanga include spherical geometry for simplified boundary conditions and computational efficiency; a hybrid plasma model with inertia-less fluid electrons, kinetic ions, and an electric field specified via an Ohm's law; a Maxwell-FDTD (finite difference time domain) plasma model which retains the displacement current in Maxwell's equations and models electron currents in the ionosphere with a tensor conductivity; sponge-layer boundary conditions for absorption of electromagnetic and plasma waves incident on the domain boundaries; and a novel mixed-implicit algorithm for evolving the EM fields inside the Maxwell-FDTD region that is stable over many orders of magnitude in the electron–ion collision frequency. We verify the numerical methods used in Topanga on a pair of test problems. The first test involves modeling a three-dimensional collisionless shock using the hybrid set of equations. The second test involves modeling a spherical TEM mode in vacuum using the Maxwell-FDTD set of equations. Finally, we demonstrate how using the combined set of hybrid and Maxwell-FDTD equations to model the Starfish Prime high-altitude nuclear test recovers a “missing” EM signal on the ground that is not present when using only the hybrid set of equations. The magnitude of this signal in the simulation containing the Maxwell-FDTD region agrees well with the E3a portion of the magnetohydrodynamic electromagnetic pulse from Starfish Prime.

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Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE

Grant/Contract Number:: AC52-07NA27344

OSTI ID:: 2567766

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 2407229

Journal Information:: Physics of Plasmas, Journal Name: Physics of Plasmas Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 31; ISSN 1070-664X

Publisher:: American Institute of PhysicsCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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