Modelling the Near-Earth Space in Six Dimensions

Image showing visualization of world’s first 6-dimensional simulation of ion-scale dynamics within the near-Earth space.
Image © University of Helsinki

Space is the finest plasma laboratory one can reach, hence many of the fundamental and universal physics discoveries of to the fourth state of matter – plasma – root to space physics. The near-Earth space is the only place one can send spacecraft to study the variability of plasma ranging from meters to millions of kilometres and from milliseconds to hundreds of years. However, one can send only a few satellites on a few orbits, making near-Earth space environment modelling crucial. To model the near-Earth space accurately, one requires a good resolution for the 3D position space, and additional 3D space for particle distributions — demanding computing performance that easily can reach the limits of any available supercomputer. 

Read the complete user research report at the Gauss Centre for Supercomputing.

Principal investigator

Minna Palmroth

Finnish Centre of Excellence in Research of Sustainable Space, Helsinki (Finland)