Improved Boundary Conditions for Coupled Geospace Models: An Application in Modeling Spacecraft Surface Charging Environment
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- School of Space and Environment Beihang University Beijing China, Key Laboratory of Space Environment Monitoring and Information Processing Ministry of Industry and Information Technology Beijing China
- Space Science and Applications Los Alamos National Laboratory Los Alamos NM USA
- Center for Space Plasma Physics Space Science Institute Boulder CO USA, New Mexico Consortium Los Alamos NM USA
Abstract Spacecraft surface charging in the inner magnetosphere often occurs in the pre‐midnight to the dawn sector when electron fluxes of tens of keV increase. Inner magnetosphere ring current models can be used to simulate/predict the spacecraft surface charging environment, with their outer boundary conditions specified either based on observations or provided by other models, such as MHD models. In the latter approach, using MHD quantities, the flux spectrum at the outer boundary is commonly assumed to follow a Kappa or Maxwellian distribution function. Such a method however often departs greatly from the realistic spectrum at E < tens of keV, a crucial energy range in the surface charging anomaly. In order to achieve a better representation of the surface charging environment, we propose to combine the MHD‐parameterized flux spectrum with an empirical electron flux model of E < 40 keV to set the electron flux boundary condition. Results indicate that as opposed to the case where the MHD‐parameterized flux distribution is solely used at the model boundary, simulations with the new boundary condition yields a more intense surface charging environment. The integrated electron flux between 10 < E < 50 keV, a measure of the severity of the surface charging environment, is significantly enhanced by 1‐2 orders of magnitude, leading to a much better agreement with Van Allen Probes measurements. This study hence demonstrates a reasonable solution to the setting of outer boundary conditions for inner magnetosphere models and is recommended for coupled geospace circulation models.
- Research Organization:
- Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- Central Universities; National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC); USDOE; USDOE Office of Science (SC)
- Grant/Contract Number:
- 89233218CNA000001
- OSTI ID:
- 1885057
- Report Number(s):
- LA-UR-21-30197; e2022SW003178
- Journal Information:
- Space Weather (Online), Journal Name: Space Weather (Online) Journal Issue: 9 Vol. 20; ISSN 1542-7390
- Publisher:
- American Geophysical Union (AGU)Copyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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