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Earth’s magnetosphere can be viewed as the fourth geosphere, the other three being lithosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere. In all cases, numerical simulations are used as a tool for research, but for the magnetosphere it is particularly helpful because the magnetosphere is huge by comparison with the others and woefully under-sampled by comparison with the others.
Responding to the need for numerical simulations for education and research in magnetospheric studies, the Community Coordinated Modeling Center (CCMC), located at Goddard Space Flight Center, makes publicly available on line powerful global magnetospheric codes. Researchers at CSP have used these and private codes to demonstrate the existence of two basically different kinds of magnetosphere, which normally operate simultaneously but can be isolated through numerical simulations. The figures show results of simulations carried out using two CCMC codes. The figures compare large-scale differences between the two magnetosphere types.
