The Vlasiator 5.2 Ionosphere – Coupling a magnetospheric hybrid-Vlasov simulation with a height-integrated ionosphere model

Abstract. Simulations of the coupled ionosphere-magnetosphere system are a key tool to understand geospace and its response to space weather. For the most part, they are based on fluid descriptions of plasma (magnetohydrodynamics, MHD) formalism, coupled an electrostatic ionosphere. Kinetic approaches to modeling the global magnetosphere with a coupled ionosphere system are still a rarity.

We present an ionospheric boundary model for the global near-Earth plasma simulation system Vlasiator. It complements the magnetospheric hybrid-Vlasov simulations with an inner boundary condition that solves the ionospheric potential based on field-aligned current and plasma quantities from the magnetospheric domain. This new ionospheric module solves the ionospheric potential in a height-integrated approach on an unstructured grid and couples back to the hybrid-kinetic simulation by mapping the resulting electric field to the magnetosphere's inner boundary.

The solver is benchmarked against a set of well-established analytic reference cases, and we discuss the benefits of a spherical Fibonacci mesh for use in ionospheric modeling. Preliminary results from coupled global magnetospheric-ionospheric simulations are presented, showing formation of both Region 1 and Region 2 current systems.