Icarus

Icarus is a global 3D HMD heliosphere model. It starts at 0.1 AU and extends to 2 AU (by default) or farther. The poles with 30-degree margins are excluded from the computational domain. The input boundary conditions are taken from a coronal model, usually WSA or COCONUT. The CMEs are injected from the inner heliospheric boundary. The cone CME is implemented within Icarus and a magnetized Spheromak model is imported from EUHFORIA model. The frame is cooperating with the Sun. Icarus supports adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) and radial grid stretching. Default criteria are developed for AMR to focus on the CMEs, shocks or the combination of the two.

Since Icarus supports both AMR and grid stretching and the combination of the two, the computational grid resolutions have to be set carefully, and detailed instructions have to be provided. In the radially stretched case, the number of cells in the radial direction differs from the uniform case. In the case of a simulation with AMR, the base level should always be low resolution.

innerBCs.vtk - boundary file generated from the WSA-output-format boundary files. amrvac.par - parameter file in MPI-AMRVAC architecture, setting the computational domain, numerical solvers, icarus-specific parameters. cme_description.in - file containing CMEs to be injected in the domain satellite_trajectory.unf - binary files containing the information about satellite trajectories (currently stored on a cloud, retrieved with a python script)

icarus_output.vtk, icarus_output.dat - 3D data from the heliosphere simulation timeseries_particle_000001.csv (for all the tracked satellites in the domain) - satellite timeseries that is converted to a more user-friendly format with a python script

The current version was released in October 2024. The publication is under review. The satellite tracking, boundary conditions and the rotating frame activation were re-implemented.

Centre for mathematical Plasma-Astrophysics, KU Leuven