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Abstract: There are a number of modeling challenges posed by space weather simulations. Most of them arise from the multiscale and multiphysics aspects of the problem. The multiple scales dramatically increase the requirements, in terms of computational resources, because of the need of performing large scale simulations with the proper small-scales resolution. Lately, several suggestions have been made to overcome this difficulty by using various refinement methods which consist in splitting the domain into regions of different resolutions separated by well defined interfaces. The multiphysics issues are generally treated in a similar way: interfaces separate the regions where different equations are solved. This paper presents an innovative approach based on the coexistence of several levels of description, which differ by their resolutions or, potentially, by their physics. Instead of interacting through interfaces, these levels are entirely simulated and are interlocked over the complete extension of the overlap area. This scheme has been applied to a parallelized, two-dimensional, Implicit Moment Method Particle in Cell code in order to investigate its multiscale description capabilities. Simulations of magnetic reconnection and plasma expansion in vacuum are presented and possible implementation options for this scheme on very large systems are also discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: We present a new time-accurate algorithm for the explicit numerical integration of the compressible Euler equations of gas dynamics. This technique is based on the discrete-event simulation (DES) methodology for nonlinear flux-conservative PDEs [Y.A. Omelchenko, H. Karimabadi, Self-adaptive time integration of flux-conservative equations with sources, J. Comput. Phys. 216 (1) (2006) 179–194]. DES enables adaptive distribution of CPU resources in accordance with local time scales of the underlying numerical solution. It distinctly stands apart from multiple (local) time-stepping algorithms in that it requires neither selecting a global synchronization time step nor pre-determining a sequence of time-integration operations for individual parts of a heterogeneous numerical system. In this paper we extend the DES methodology in three important directions: (i) we apply DES to a system of coupled gas dynamics equations discretized via a central-upwind scheme [A. Kurganov, E. Tadmor, New high-resolution central schemes for nonlinear conservation laws and convection–diffusion equations, J. Comput. Phys. 160 (2000) 241–282; A. Kurganov, S. Noelle, G. Petrova, Semidiscrete central-upwind schemes for hyperbolic conservation laws and Hamilton–Jacobi equations, SIAM J. Sci. Comput. 23 (3) (2001) 707–740]; (ii) we introduce a new Preemptive Event Processing (PEP) technique, which automatically enforces synchronous execution of events with sufficiently close update times; (iii) we significantly improve the accuracy of the previous algorithm [Y.A. Omelchenko, H. Karimabadi, Self-adaptive time integration of flux-conservative equations with sources, J. Comput. Phys. 216 (1) (2006) 179–194] by applying locally second-order-in-time flux-conserving corrections to the solution obtained with the forward Euler scheme. The performance of the new technique is demonstrated in a series of one-dimensional gas dynamics test problems by comparing numerical solutions obtained in event-driven and equivalent time-stepping simulations. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]