N |
Solar wind plasma density. |
Mass density described in terms of number of protons per cubic centimeter.
|
AMU/cm^3 |
3.8 |
0.1 |
100 |
T |
Solar wind plasma temperature. |
Derived from observed distribution of solar wind particles. Can fluctuate widely when density N is at or below 1 AMU/cm^3. |
K |
81200 |
10000 |
2000000 |
Vx |
Sun-Earth component of solar wind velocity. |
Low solar wind speed (less than 200 km/s in magnitude) usually indicates poor statistics in the solar wind plasma measurements. |
km/s |
-411.7 |
-3000 |
-200 |
Vy |
Plasma velocity in dawn-dusk direction. |
The orbital velocity of Earth (about 29 km/s) is usually neglected. |
km/s |
0 |
-500 |
500 |
Vz |
Solar wind plasma velocity in north-south direction. |
|
km/s |
0 |
-500 |
500 |
Bx |
Sun-Earth component of solar wind magnetic field. |
Bx is usually held constant (zero or average of observed values) to conserve div.B at the front boundary.
Alternatively, oblique phase fronts can be assumed that update solar wind conditions along those fronts throughout the front boundary. Bx is then approximated as a linear combination of time dependent By and Bz. |
nT |
-0.92 |
-100 |
100 |
By |
Dawn-dusk component of solar wind magnetic field. |
|
nT |
2 |
-100 |
100 |
Bz |
North-south component of the solar wind magnetic field.
B_z is most important magnetic field component to drive or inhibit geomagnetic activity.
Other components play a role in connection with the orientation of the Earth's dipole field. |
|
nT |
-1.5 |
-100 |
100 |
sw_source |
Name of the spacecraft or data source used to generate solar wind input information.
Currently one of ACE-RT ACE-L2, WIND, OMNI, DSCOVR (real time) |
User-submitted data may be from any source or made-up. |
|
DSCOVR-realtime |
|
|
solarwind |
Flag indicating whether solar wind data are constant (initial values) or variable (var). |
|
|
var |
const |
var |
constant-Bx |
Constant Bx value fed into the front boundary of the simulation. |
|
nT |
0 |
|
|
By-coefficient |
Coefficient for By in linear combination approximating Bx:
Bx ~ constant-Bx + By-coefficient*By + Bz-coefficient*Bz |
|
|
0 |
-1 |
1 |
Bz-coefficient |
Coefficient for Bz in linear combination approximating Bx: Bx ~ constant-Bx + By-coefficient*By + Bz-coefficient*Bz |
|
|
0 |
-1 |
1 |
SW density floor |
Lowest value of N applied during pre-processing of solar wind input data. |
The density floor in the solar wind varies by magnetosphere model and it's numerical stability. A similar floor may be imposed inside the magnetotail lobes where the density may drop lower than in the solar wind. |
AMU/cm^3 |
0.1 |
0.1 |
2.5 |
despike_solar_wind_data |
Flag indicating whether to automatically de-spike solar wind (optional for automatically retrieved data only; use when solar wind data shown in next page have clusters of extreme values in plasma density, temperature or velocity). |
Despiking is performed during preprocessing of solar wind inputs.
The option is available during run -on request submission on the CCMC web site. |
|
True |
0 |
1 |
despike.threshold |
De-spike threshold (standard deviations) |
|
sigmas |
3 |
2 |
4 |
despike.number_of_samples |
De-spike length (number of samples in cluster of extreme values to be eliminated) |
|
|
5 |
3 |
9 |
setting_option_for_Bx |
Indicates how solar wind Bx is set: set Bx to a specified constant ('user'), set Bx to the initial solar wind data value ('init'), or use average Bx from solar wind data ('auto'). |
|
|
auto |
|
|
SW_density_floor_was_applied |
Flag indicating the solar wind density has been floored with SW_density_floor value to ensure that the model will run through the requested time interval. |
|
|
False |
|
|
minimum_SW_Fast-Mode_mach_number |
Minimum solar wind Fast-Mode mach number |
|
|
6.16 |
|
|
SW_parameters_are_large |
Flag indicating whether solar wind velocity, density or dynamic pressure are large. If they are, the run is a special request requiring attention by CCMC staff. The variables will be accepted unless they exceed certain absolute maximum values. |
|
|
|
|
|
b_abs |
Magnitude of transverse solar wind magnetic field b_abs=sqrt(B_y^2 + B_z^2) |
|
nT |
2.5 |
0 |
100 (100000 for EXO) |
b_angle |
Clock angle of transverse solar wind magnetic field orientation, measured from northward direction. b_angle=atan(B_y,B_z) cast into range from 0 to 360 degrees. |
|
degree |
126.87 |
0 |
360 |