Athena++ MHD Modeling of Solar-Wind Switchback Displacement Invariance
This project develops and runs compressible MHD simulations of solar-wind switchback structures using Athena++ on UMBC’s chip cluster. The immediate goal is to propagate localized, Alfvénic switchback-like packets in 2.5D and later 3D and test whether a packet displacement scale of approximately 6 x 10^3 km can remain approximately invariant under solar-wind propagation, consistent with Parker Solar Probe and Solar Orbiter observational results. The workflow is CPU-based at this stage and uses local virtual probes, restart files, history outputs, and moderate-size visualization files to calibrate and validate the modeled structures. The next step is to move from successful local MacBook tests to larger chip-cpu runs for parameter scans, scaling tests, and development of expanding-background heliospheric models. The project supports heliophysics research on solar-wind structure, radio propagation environments, and inner-heliospheric plasma dynamics.