Date of Award

8-17-2023

Document Type

Thesis

Abstract

Magnetospheres are poorly understood, largely due to lack of significant amounts of in-situ data and the complexity of the systems. Accurate numerical magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) magnetosphere simulation codes can bolster this lack of observational data. In this thesis, we explore applying mutual information theory techniques to a global-scale Jovian-like magnetosphere simulation provided by the Grid Agnostic MHD for Extended Research Applications (GAMERA) code. The mutual information between two variables is a measure of their dependency and is even capable of detecting nonlinear relationships, unlike traditional linear correlation calculations. Time shifted mutual information is a useful metric for identifying possible causal relationships and improving understanding of overall dynamics within the magnetosphere system. Data from the Juno spacecraft exhibits a 2-3 hour periodicity. Corotating density arm structures seen in the GAMERA simulation, if present at Jupiter, could contribute to this periodicity. We investigate how these density structures modulate the internal dynamics of the magnetosphere. Preliminary analysis indicates that the dynamics of the simulation are largely driven by the advection of the corotating density arm structures. A consistent 3-5 hour periodicity is noticeable and likely caused or contributed to by these density structures. Relationships at 10-20 hours are on the subcorotation timescale and are consistently more nonlinear than relationships found at shorter periodicities.

Handle

http://hdl.handle.net/11122/14642

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