Global hybrid simulations of soft X-ray emissions in the Earth’s magnetosheath

Earth’s magnetopause is a thin boundary separating the shocked solar wind plasma from the magnetospheric plasmas,and it is also the boundary of the solar wind energy transport to the magnetosphere.Soft X-ray imaging allows investigation of the large-scale magnetopause by providing a two-dimensional(2-D)global view from a satellite.By performing 3-D global hybrid-particle-in-cell(hybrid-PIC)simulations,we obtain soft X-ray images of Earth’s magnetopause under different solar wind conditions,such as different plasma densities and directions of the southward interplanetary magnetic field.In all cases,magnetic reconnection occurs at low latitude magnetopause.The soft X-ray images observed by a hypothetical satellite are shown,with all of the following identified:the boundary of the magnetopause,the cusps,and the magnetosheath.Local X-ray emissivity in the magnetosheath is characterized by large amplitude fluctuations(up to 160%);however,the maximum line-of-sight-integrated X-ray intensity matches the tangent directions of the magnetopause well,indicating that these fluctuations have limited impact on identifying the magnetopause boundary in the X-ray images.Moreover,the magnetopause boundary can be identified using multiple viewing geometries.We also find that solar wind conditions have little effect on the magnetopause identification.The Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer(SMILE)mission will provide X-ray images of the magnetopause for the first time,and our global hybrid-PIC simulation results can help better understand the 2-D X-ray images of the magnetopause from a 3-D perspective,with particle kinetic effects considered.

Formation of the bow shock indentation: MHD simulation results

Simulation results from a global magnetohydrodynamic(MHD)model are used to examine whether the bow shock has an indentation and characterize its formation conditions,as well as its physical mechanism.The bow shock is identified by an increase in plasma density of the solar wind,and the indentation of the bow shock is determined by the shock flaring angle.It is shown that when the interplanetary magnetic field(IMF)is southward and the Alfvén Mach number(Mα)of solar wind is high(>5),the bow shock indentation can be clearly determined.The reason is that the outflow region of magnetic reconnection(MR)that occurs in the low latitude area under southward IMF blocks the original flow in the magnetosheath around the magnetopause,forming a high-speed zone and a low-speed zone that are upstream and downstream of each other.This structure hinders the surrounding flow in the magnetosheath,and the bow shock behind the structure widens and forms an indentation.When Mαis low,the magnetosheath is thicker and the disturbing effect of the MR outflow region is less obvious.Under northward IMF,MR occurs at high latitudes,and the outflow region formed by reconnection does not block the flow inside the magnetosheath,thus the indentation is harder to form.The study of the conditions and formation process of the bow shock indentation will help to improve the accuracy of bow shock models.

Effects of Dynamic Vegetation on Global Climate Simulation Using the NCEP GFS and SSiB4/TRIFFID

Two global experiments were carried out to investigate the effects of dynamic vegetation processes on numerical climate simulations from 1948 to 2008.The NCEP Global Forecast System(GFS)was coupled with a biophysical model,the Simplified Simple Biosphere Model(SSi B)version 2(GFS/SSi B2),and it was also coupled with a biophysical and dynamic vegetation model,SSi B version 4/Top-down Representation of Interactive Foliage and Flora Including Dynamics(TRIFFID)(GFS/SSi B4/TRIFFID).The effects of dynamic vegetation processes on the simulation of precipitation,near-surface temperature,and the surface energy budget were identified on monthly and annual scales by assessing the GFS/SSi B4/TRIFFID and GFS/SSi B2 results against the satellite-derived leaf area index(LAI)and albedo and the observed land surface temperature and precipitation.The results show that compared with the GFS/SSiB2 model,the temporal correlation coefficients between the globally averaged monthly simulated LAI and the Global Inventory Monitoring and Modeling System(GIMMS)/Global Land Surface Satellite(GLASS)LAI in the GFS/SSi B4/TRIFFID simulation increased from 0.31/0.29(SSiB2)to 0.47/0.46(SSiB4).The correlation coefficients between the simulated and observed monthly mean near-surface air temperature increased from 0.50(Africa),0.35(Southeast Asia),and 0.39(South America)to 0.56,0.41,and 0.44,respectively.The correlation coefficients between the simulated and observed monthly mean precipitation increased from 0.19(Africa),0.22(South Asia),and 0.22(East Asia)to 0.25,0.27,and 0.28,respectively.The greatest improvement occurred over arid and semiarid areas.The spatiotemporal variability and changes in vegetation and ground surface albedo modeled by the GFS with a dynamic vegetation model were more consistent with the observations.The dynamic vegetation processes contributed to the surface energy and water balance and in turn,improved the annual variations in the simulated regional temperature and precipitation.The dynamic vegetation processes had the greatest influence on the spatiotemporal changes in the latent heat flux.This study shows that dynamic vegetation processes in earth system models significantly improve simulations of the climate mean status.

Effects of a dipole-like crustal field on solar wind interaction with Mars

A three-dimensional four species multi-fluid magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) model was constructed to simulate the solar wind global interaction with Mars. The model was augmented to consider production and loss of the significant ion species in the Martian ionosphere, i.e., H^+, O2^+, O^+, CO^+2, associated with chemical reactions among all species. An ideal dipole-like local crustal field model was used to simplify the empirically measured Martian crustal field. Results of this simulation suggest that the magnetic pile-up region (MPR) and the velocity profile in the meridian plane are asymmetric, which is due to the nature of the multi-fluid model to decouple individual ion velocity resulting in occurrence of plume flow in the northern Martian magnetotail. In the presence of dipole magnetic field model, boundary layers, such as bow shock (BS) and magnetic pile-up boundary (MPB), become protuberant. Moreover, the crustal field has an inhibiting effect on the flux of ions escaping from Mars, an effect that occurs primarily in the region between the terminator (SZA 90°) and the Sun Mars line of the magnetotail (SZA 180°), partially around the terminator region. In contrast, near the tailward central line the crustal field has no significant impact on the escaping flux.

Mechanical Characteristics Analysis of 3D-printing Novel Chiral Honeycomb Array Structures Based on Functional Principle and Constitutive Relationship

Four novel chiral honeycomb structures inspired by the biological arrangement shape are designed.The functional principle is raised to solve the large deformation of bio-inspired structures and the structural constitutive model is proposed to explain the quasi-static mechanical properties of chiral honeycomb array structures and honeycomb structures.Simulation and experiment results verify the accuracy of theoretical analysis results and the errors are all within 15%.In structural mechanical properties,Equidimensional Chiral Honeycomb Array Structure(ECHS)has excellent mechanical properties.Among ECHS,Small-sized Column Chiral Honeycomb Array Structure(SCHCS)has the best properties.The bearing capacity,specific energy absorption,and specific strength of SCHCS are more than twice as much as the others in this paper.The chiral honeycomb array structure has the best mechanical properties at a certain size.In the structural design,the optimal size model should be obtained first in combination with the optimization algorithm for the protection design.

Five-year warming does not change soil organic carbon stock but alters its chemical composition in an alpine peatland

Climate warming may promote soil organic carbon(SOC)decomposition and alter SOC stocks in terrestrial ecosystems,which would in turn affect climate warming.We manipulated a warming experiment using open-top chambers to investigate the effect of warming on SOC stock and chemical composition in an alpine peatland in Zoigêon the eastern Tibetan Plateau,China.Results showed that 5 years of warming soil temperatures enhanced ecosystem respiration during the growing season,promoted above-and belowground plant biomass,but did not alter the SOC stock.However,labile O-alkyl C and relatively recalcitrant aromatic C contents decreased,and alkyl C content increased.Warming also increased the amount of SOC stored in the silt-clay fraction(<0.053 mm),but this was offset by warming-induced decreases in the SOC stored within micro-and macroaggregates(0.053–0.25 and>0.25 mm,respectively).These changes in labile and recalcitrant C were largely associated with warming-induced increases in soil microbial biomass C,fungal diversity,enzyme activity,and functional gene abundance related to the decomposition of labile and recalcitrant C compounds.The warming-induced accumulation of SOC stored in the silt-clay fraction could increase SOC persistence in alpine peatland ecosystems.Our findings suggest that mechanisms mediated by soil microbes account for the changes in SOC chemical composition and SOC in different aggregate size fractions,which is of great significance when evaluating SOC stability under climate warming conditions.