High-performance computational models are required to make the real-time or faster than real-time numerical prediction of adverse space weather events and their influence on the geospace environment.The main objective in this article is to explore the application of programmable graphic processing units(GPUs)to the numerical space weather modeling for the study of solar wind background that is a crucial part in the numerical space weather modeling.GPU programming is realized for our Solar-Interplanetary-CESE MHD model(SIP-CESE MHD model)by numerically studying the solar corona/interplanetary solar wind.The global solar wind structures are obtained by the established GPU model with the magnetic field synoptic data as input.Meanwhile,the time-dependent solar surface boundary conditions derived from the method of characteristics and the mass flux limit are incorporated to couple the observation and the three-dimensional(3D)MHD model.The simulated evolution of the global structures for two Carrington rotations 2058 and 2062 is compared with solar observations and solar wind measurements from spacecraft near the Earth.The MHD model is also validated by comparison with the standard potential field source surface(PFSS)model.Comparisons show that the MHD results are in good overall agreement with coronal and interplanetary structures,including the size and distribution of coronal holes,the position and shape of the streamer belts,and the transition of the solar wind speeds and magnetic field polarities.
FENG XueShangZHONG DingKunXIANG ChangQingZHANG Yao
We present a newly developed global magnetohydrodynamic(MHD) model to study the responses of the Earth's magnetosphere to the solar wind. The model is established by using the space-time conservation element and solution element(CESE) method in general curvilinear coordinates on a six-component grid system. As a preliminary study, this paper is to present the model's numerical results of the quasi-steady state and the dynamics of the Earth's magnetosphere under steady solar wind flow with due northward interplanetary magnetic field(IMF). The model results are found to be in good agreement with those published by other numerical magnetospheric models.
