The universe is in shock

Thanks to the international project called SHOCK, we know more about how the Sun affects space weather. We can understand its complex behaviour thanks to a sophisticated model which simulates the interaction between solar wind and planetary magnetospheres. The data is the result of cooperation between Czech, French, Italian, and British scientists; university professors, doctoral students, and the employees of this project’s industrial partner - Sprinx Systems.
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Data Integration

In the space physics community, progress is constantly being made both with new, more detailed spacecraft observations and statistical investigations of spacecraft data, and in parallel, advances within computer simulations continuously give more detailed insights into the physical processes and the time evolution of various phenomena, which enhance our understanding of the  important physics. Although both of these disciplines play an important part in the scientific progress, comparative studies between observations and simulation are a key component in order to make sense of both the data and the simulations. Such work, in particular studies which concern kinetic effects, are highly relevant for the work conducted within the SHOCK project. Here below is a selection of four recent papers which together highlight the relevance of simulation-observation comparisons, and the scientific gains that may come from such studies.
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Research Review #2

Much of our understanding of collisionless shocks comes from studies of the terrestrial bow shock upstream of the magnetosphere, which serves to slow down and thermalize the incident supersonic and super-Alfvenic plasma in the solar wind. Over the last decades, multi-spacecraft observations and computer simulations have helped to enhance our understanding of the physical process involved, and progress is still being made. In particular, 3D simulations of the shock front are now becoming feasible, something which will allow full spatial and temporal investigations of the shock processes. Some of the problems that yet remain unresolved are for example how the highly energetic field-aligned beams observed in the quasi-parallel section of the bow shock (i.e. where the shock normal is within 45 degrees of the upstream magnetic field) gain their initial energies, and the possible non-stationary features and reformation of the quasi-perpendicular shock front (i.e. where the angle between the shock normal and the upstream magnetic field exceeds 45 degrees) which has earlier been considered as a stable boundary.
Below is a short summary of four papers published within the last year that investigate several such issues, and which are all directly relevant to the work conducted within the SHOCK project. Read more

Research Review #1

This blog post presents some highlights of recent simulation research from published research papers from outside the SHOCK consortium, dealing with topics such as the solar wind interaction with the Moon and the formation of very small scale structures in solar wind turbulence.

Simulation is used extensively in heliospheric research to investigate the evolution of the solar wind and its interaction with solar system bodies such as the Earth and other planets. The SHOCK project has the aim of furthering this research and also extending the use of simulations in data analysis of space data. As well as the main research areas of the SHOCK project consortium members, it is important to show the wide range of heliospheric simulation work.
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