MHD simulations of the plasma and neutral gas environment of comet 67P

May 14, 2016·
Nicolas Fougere
Nicolas Fougere
,
Huang et al
· 0 min read
Image credit: Huang et al. 2016
Abstract
The neutral and plasma environment is critical in understanding the interaction of the solar wind and comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (CG), the target of the European Space Agency’s Rosetta mission. To serve this need and support the Rosetta mission, we have developed a 3-D four-fluid model, which is based on BATS-R-US (Block-Adaptive Tree Solarwind Roe-type Upwind Scheme) within SWMF (Space Weather Modeling Framework) that solves the governing multifluid MHD equations and the Euler equations for the neutral gas fluid. These equations describe the behavior and interactions of the cometary heavy ions, the solar wind protons, the electrons, and the neutrals. This model incorporates different mass loading processes, including photoionization and electron impact ionization, charge exchange, dissociative ion-electron recombination, and collisional interactions between different fluids. We simulated the plasma and neutral gas environment near perihelion in three different cases an idealized comet with a spherical body and uniform neutral gas outflow, an idealized comet with a spherical body and illumination-driven neutral gas outflow, and comet CG with a realistic shape model and illumination-driven neutral gas outflow. We compared the results of the three cases and showed that the simulations with illumination-driven neutral gas outflow have magnetic reconnection, a magnetic pileup region and nucleus directed plasma flow inside the nightside reconnection region, which have not been reported in the literature.
Type
Publication
Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, 121
Status
Peer-reviewed Open access
publications
Space Sciences Magnetoydrodynamics (MHD) CFD
Nicolas Fougere
Authors
Nicolas Fougere (he/him)
Senior Manager Role Portfolio

Nicolas Fougere helps global manufacturers turn emerging technology into commercial strategy. As Senior Manager for the Fluids Portfolio at Dassault Systèmes, he sets the 3-year strategy for a multi-product CFD portfolio, owns the productization and pricing models decisions, and leads the portfolio’s shift toward AI enabled simulation.

He came into this role after eight years in technical sales, where he served as account lead for some of the company’s largest customers. That work gave him a close view of how large organizations actually decide to adopt new technology, which is a big part of why his current strategy work tends to hold up once it meets a real customer.

Earlier still, he worked on mission analysis and simulation research supporting NASA and the European Space Agency’s Rosetta mission, and published more than 40 peer-reviewed papers along the way. His engineering and scientific degrees are from the University of Michigan.

What distinguishes Nicolas is the ability to move fluidly between deep technical work and business decision-making, from a simulation review with engineers to a pricing or roadmap discussion with executives. That range is increasingly what organizations need when deciding whether a simulation or AI investment is worth making.