Technical Article

A magnetodisc model service for planetary space weather studies

¹ Department of Physics and Astronomy/Centre for Planetary Sciences, University College London, Gower Street, WC1E 6BT London, UK
² Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planétologie (IRAP), Université de Toulouse, CNRS, CNES, UPS, 9 av. du colonel Roche, BP 44346, 31028 Toulouse Cedex 4, France

^* Corresponding author: nicholas.achilleos@ucl.ac.uk

Received: 18 September 2018
Accepted: 22 May 2019

Abstract

Theoretical models play an important role in the Planetary Space Weather Services (PSWS) of the European Planetary Network (“Europlanet”), due to their ability to predict the physical response of magnetospheric environments to compressions or rarefactions in the upstream solar wind flow. We illustrate this aspect by presenting examples of some calculations done with the UCL Magnetodisc Model in both “Jupiter” and “Saturn” mode. Similar model outputs can now be provided via the PSWS MAGNETODISC service. For each planet’s space environment, we present example model outputs showing the effect of compressions and rarefactions on the global magnetic field, plasma pressure and azimuthal current density. As a simple illustration of the physics underlying these reference models, we quantify solar wind effects by comparing the “compressed” and “expanded” outputs to a nominal “average-state” model, reflecting more typical solar wind dynamic pressures. We also describe the implementation of the corresponding PSWS MAGNETODISC Service, through which similar outputs may be obtained by potential users.