VisAn MHD: a toolbox in Matlab for MHD computer model data visualisation and analysis

摘要

Among the many challenges facing modern space physics today is the need for avisualisation and analysis package which can examine the results from thediversity of numerical and empirical computer models as well as observationaldata. Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) models represent the latest numerical modelsof the complex Earth's space environment and have the unique ability to spanthe enormous distances present in the magnetosphere from several hundredkilometres to several thousand kilometres above the Earth surface. Thisfeature enables scientist to study complex structures of processes whereotherwise only point measurements from satellites or ground-based instrumentsare available. Only by combining these observational data and the MHDsimulations it is possible to enlarge the scope of the point-to-pointobservations and to fill the gaps left by measurements in order to get a full3-D representation of the processes in our geospace environment. In this paperwe introduce the VisAn MHD toolbox for Matlab as a tool for the visualisationand analysis of observational data and MHD simulations. We have created aneasy to use tool which is capable of highly sophisticated visualisations anddata analysis of the results from a diverse set of MHD models in combinationwith in situ measurements from satellites and ground-based instruments. Thetoolbox is being released under an open-source licensing agreement tofacilitate and encourage community use and contribution.